Browns and Grays: Walnut, Butternut, Bark, and Iron

Many of the most dependable natural browns come from trees: walnut, butternut, hickory, and oak ¹.

Black walnut

Both the hulls and the shells of the black walnut (Juglans nigra) are used. Collect the hulls while they’re green, then use them fresh or dry them. Many dyers think dried hulls make better dye. Another old method is to cover the green hulls with water and store them away from the light, where the color grows darker and seems to improve on standing ¹.

Walnut is the easiest natural dye there is, because it’s substantive: it needs no mordant ². On unmordanted wool, black walnut hulls give a dark brown with good fastness. With alum the color is a bit brighter but only fair to light ¹.

Dark brown, for 1 pound of unmordanted wool ¹:

1. Soak ½ peck of green black walnut hulls in water to cover for 30 minutes, then boil 15 minutes.
2. Strain, and add cold water to make 4 to 4½ gallons.
3. Put in the wet wool and boil 20 minutes. Rinse and dry.

Don’t boil wool long in walnut dye; it makes the wool harsh ¹. Wear the rubber gloves the USDA recommends for all dyeing ¹; walnut stains hands brown. On alum-mordanted cotton, walnut gives a drab with good fastness to light, and an iron afterbath makes it darker ¹.

Butternut

Butternut (Juglans cinerea), grows in the woods of the Eastern and Central states. Its bark, roots, leaves, and hulls all make dye. Gather the nuts green and let them ripen partly; then the hulls are ready to use, or dry them for later ¹.

On alum-mordanted wool, butternut hulls give a fast brown, fair to light. Add iron and it darkens, even to black, depending on how much you use ¹.

Brown, for 1 pound of alum-mordanted wool ¹:

1. Soak 1 peck of green butternut hulls in water to cover for 30 minutes, then boil 15 to 30 minutes.
2. Strain, and add cold water to make 4 to 4½ gallons.
3. Put in the wet wool and boil 30 minutes. Rinse and dry.

For a darker brown, move the dyed wool, without rinsing, into a boiling bath of about 1/6 ounce of ferrous sulfate (copperas) in 4 to 4½ gallons of water, and boil 10 minutes more. Rinse and dry ¹. Iron saddens every color it touches; too much hardens wool and makes it streak ².

Oak and other barks

The barks of many common trees give tans and browns on wool; on cotton, only the lighter shades. Of the barks the USDA tested, black oak (quercitron) had the most coloring power. Collect most barks in fall or winter. The inner bark is generally used, fresh or dried, and fresh usually gives a stronger dye. Dry bark carefully and store it where it won’t mold ¹.

The basic bark method, for 1 pound of wool, unmordanted or mordanted with alum ¹:

1. Soak 1 peck of finely chopped bark overnight in 2 to 2½ gallons of soft water.
2. In the morning heat slowly and boil 2 hours, adding hot water as it boils away.
3. Strain twice through cheesecloth, and add cold water to make 4 to 4½ gallons.
4. Let it cool to lukewarm, put in the wet wool, and boil 30 minutes. Rinse and dry.

One caution: bark color is closely combined with tannin, so bark-dyed fabric often isn’t fast to light and soon darkens toward brown ¹. The bulletin’s other bark methods fix that with chrome, copper, or iron afterbaths; of those, only the iron one (1/6 ounce of ferrous sulfate, boiled 10 minutes) belongs in a home dye kitchen today ^{1 2}.

Lichens

The USDA noted that the peasant dyers of Sweden, Scotland, and Ireland colored woolens brown, yellow, red, and purple with lichens. The bulletin recommended collecting them in August, and passed on the saying that lichens growing on stone give better color than the same kinds on trees ¹. Some lichens are substantive dyes like walnut ². The leafy, flat Peltigera, boiled for an hour from a peck of crushed dry lichens and used on alum-mordanted wool, gave the USDA a yellow-tan, fair to light and good to washing ¹.

Try it

In the fall, gather a bucket of fallen black walnuts, peel off the green or blackening hulls (with gloves on), and dye one skein of unmordanted wool and one mordanted with alum in the same bath. Compare them, and put both in the light test.