Dye Samples

These are samples of wool which I dyed with various natural dyes last summer.
They are Brazilwood, Madder, White Onion skins, Red Onion skins, Turmeric,Weld, Indigo and Ornamental Maize and some which are a mixture of two of these. They were all mordanted with Alum.
I have one small bag of Brazilwood left but unfortunately I shall not be replacing it as I have discovered that the Brazilwood trees are endangered. It's a shame as it produces the most beautiful reds and when lime is added it makes the rich pink seen in the sample above, so I am treating what I have left like gold dust.
The grey/ purple colour in the bottom left of the image above was achieved with home grown Ornamental Maize. I am hoping to grow some more of that this year. Ideally I would like to use dyes that I have either grown or found locally, but I am bound to be tempted by the lovely colours of some of the imported dyes like Madder.