How to Create Colorful Plant Dyes

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Photo Source; Flickr.com Creative Commons

By: Sara Beese, Journalist

Plants have been used to create natural dyes, which make strong, long lasting colors.  You can extract dyes from plants in your home and use it for many crafts. Most natural dyes need an extra substance, which is called mordants. Mordants help plant color attach to textile fibers which helps it stay colorful. Mordants also make colors more vibrant, though some natural dyes don’t need mordants, because they are already bright enough. Other than that, there aren’t that many steps to create these colorful dyes.

Creating colorful dyes from plants is related to engineering, because you are making the dyes yourself.

 

Related Stories:

https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/design/outdoor-living/growing-plants-for-dye.html 

https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/dyes.shtml

http://www.allnaturaldyeing.com/natural-dye-colors/