Dyeing With Cochineal

I’ve been experimenting with natural dyes for about 2 years now. Only recently have I begun to dig deeper into my studies. Dyeing in general is very tricky, and requires chemistry, so initially I would experiment with pigments, without formulas or mordants.

Last year I began to see just how much mordants can change the pH and the look, feel, and color of a garment. I fell in love.

Yesterday I did a little experiment with Cochineal Bugs—native to North America—to see just how many different colors I could come up with. They come in the form of little dried bugs (as pictured above). In order to achieve a powder form, put them in a bowl and grind them up. Grind until they begin to turn red, as that means the color is extracting.

Once you have the red powder, add it to boiling water. The amount of cochineal powder that needs to be added is 25% of the fabric weight. Ex: If you have 4 grams of fabric, you need to add 1 gram of cochineal. This formula will yield the best results when dyeing and can be applied to any amount of fabric.

Mixing your mordants to achieve different colors is also a percentage formula.

If Adding Alum, your formula will be 25% of fabric weight in cochineal, and 25% of fabric weight in alum.

If Adding Citric or Acidic acids, Your formula will be 25% weight in cochineal, and 100% of fabric weight in Citric or Acidic acids. ex: if fabric weighs 4 grams, you will add 4 grams of your lime powder or vinegar. Here I used vinegar.

If Adding Cream of Tartar, you will add the same amount in cochineal as mentioned above, and 25% of Cream of Tartar.

Eco Printing is taking random pigments, plants, flowers, seeds, basically whatever you choose, and placing them on your natural fiber. You then roll them up however you choose, wrap them with thread, and then steam them for a minimum of 1 hour!

Here I took a swatch of the linen, and some turmeric, logwood, and indigo powder. The result is a tie-dyed look.