Dyeing with plants is not only unpredictable but sometime very disappointing. Still, it is always fascinating to see what you get. My last experiments involved red onion skins, nettles and coffee. For those interested in objective facts and recipes here are the quantities of plant material to wool. For the red onion skins experiment I had 20 grams of plant material for 50 grams un-mordanted wool. For the coffee experiment I made strong coffee from 50 grams coffee beans for 60 gr un-mordanted wool. For the nettles experiment I had a 10 lt bucket 3/4 full with plant material for 150 gram wool and 35 gr merino, both mordanted with 10% alum. After the first dye I continued to use the exhaust dye baths (except the nettle dye bath) as there was still enough color in them - see the comments on the pictures in this post for explanations.
And what are my impressions so far after these experiments? Nettles - disappointment. The nettles I used were already old so that might have been the problem. The color was just not strong enough :(. Red onion skins - works good both on un-mordanted or mordanted wool, and you can get a nice color even with not very much plant material. As for the coffee experiment - hm... I am not very impressed with the color I got. But of course, that is just a matter of taste.
And what are my impressions so far after these experiments? Nettles - disappointment. The nettles I used were already old so that might have been the problem. The color was just not strong enough :(. Red onion skins - works good both on un-mordanted or mordanted wool, and you can get a nice color even with not very much plant material. As for the coffee experiment - hm... I am not very impressed with the color I got. But of course, that is just a matter of taste.