More lichen dyeing

Having collected a good handful of another type of lichen ( upper moorland) I thought I'd have another go and see what happened this time.

This was also very plentiful and detached from the main host so I didn't feel bad about taking a little.

I haven't yet identified it positively but it seems to be a "thread" type. It was soft when I picked it up from the wet ground but rapidly dried hard and brittle.

Being much the same colour as the last one I wasn't that surprised to get another "green tea" liquor although this one is rather darker. Smelt equally horrid when boiling though.


Again it was boiled for an hour, allowed to steep overnight and the vegetable matter strained out.

The initial colour is very similar to last time but actually a little paler even after steeping in the dye bath for 48 hours rather than just overnight ( my fault - forgot about it!).

I also put some DMC cotton thread in with the wool. It has taken the dye much less strongly and is a pale ivory colour. I plan to leave them in the light to see if they darken  like the last lot.

Now just need to find a  lichen that gives a different colour.

Lichen dyeing revisited

A chance conversation with a friend over the weekend sent me scurrying for the wool I'd dyed a couple of weeks ago.

This friend is a professional dyer and always uses artificial dyes as she told me that many natural dyes ( and lichen!) were photo unstable. I hadn't actually got around to putting my fleece away so I was a bit worried about what it would look like.

And yes it has changed colour quite a lot. It is now a soft warm tan colour rather than bright yellow.

This is the colour that my references told me that the lichen I used should produce! I hope it will now stay this colour. I might put it away properly but leave a little out to see what happens next.

Natural Dyeing with Lichen

This is something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. Lichen has been used to produce dyes for longer than anyone can remember and in the not so distant past  dye was still made this way commercially.

This is Ramalina farinacea. It was collected from fallen oak twigs and branches in North Wales. It is a soft grayish green and very common. High winds and rain had stripped a woodland of lots of small  twigs many of which were bearing a good covering of the lichen.

Lichen colonies are easily damaged by collecting and  this is the first time I've seen sufficient dislodged naturally for me to pick up enough to try this.

The first stage is to boil the lichen to release the colour. I used the old pan I generally reserve for melting candle wax. I boiled it for an hour and then left the liquor to steep overnight. I personally found the smell of the boiling lichen unpleasant and was glad when the hour was up.

The following morning I strained out all the plant matter and was left with this insipid pale greyish green liquor.

I almost gave up at this point and tipped it away. However I thought I might as well carry on. I brought the strained "tea" back up to the boil and added some white wool gleaned from the Welsh hillside and pre washed.

Doesn't look promising does it? Once it was boiling I turned off the heat, covered it and left it steeping overnight - close to 24 hours.

I was fully prepared to write off this experiment as a complete failure so I wasn't expecting much...

...and certainly not this - once rinsed and dried I have yellow wool! The colour is actually a little stronger and brighter in real life.