Recipes For Dyeing With Lichens

To dye Brown with Crotal. For 6-1/4 lbs. (100 ozs.) of wool. Dye

baths may be used of varying strengths of from 10 to 50 ozs. of

Crotal. Raise the bath to the boil, and boil for an hour. A light tan

shade is got by first dipping the wool in a strong solution of Crotal,

a darker shade by boiling for half-an-hour, and a dark brown by

boiling for two hours or so. It is better, however, to get the shade

by altering the qua tity of Crotal used. The addition of sufficient

oil of vitriol or acetic acid to make the bath slightly acid will be

an improvement (a very small quantity should be used).



To dye red with Crotal. Gather the lichen off the rocks--it is best

in winter. Put layers of lichen and wool alternately in a pot, fill up

with water and boil until you get the desired tint. Too much crotal

will make the wool a dark red brown, but a very pretty terra cotta red

can be got. No mordant is required.



To dye Pink from a bright yellow Lichen (Parmelia parietina).

Mordant the wool with 3% of Bichromate of Potash, then boil with the

lichen for 1 hour or more.



To dye Brown from Crotal. Boil the wool with an equal quantity of

lichen for 1 or 1-1/2 hours. No mordant is required.



To dye red purple from Cudbear and Logwood. Dye with equal

quantities of Cudbear and Logwood, the wool having been mordanted with

chrome. A lighter colour is got by dyeing with 8 lbs. cudbear, 1/2 lb.

logwood (for 30 lbs. wool).



To dye Yellow on Linen with the Lichen Peltigera canina (a large

flat lichen growing on rocks in woods). Mordant with alum (1/4 lb. to

a lb. of linen) boil for 2 hours. Then boil up with sufficient

quantity of the lichen till the desired colour is got.