Lychen Dyes : Recipes For Dyeing With Lychens
Some of the most useful dyes and the least known are to be found among the Lichens. They seem to have been used among peasant dyers from remote ages, but apparently none of the great French dyers used them, nor are they mentioned in any of the old books on dyeing.
The only Lichen dyes that are known generally among dyers are Orchil and Cudbear, and these are preparations of lichens, not the lichens themselves. They are still used in some quantity and are prepared rather elaborately. But a great many of the ordinary lichens yield very good and permanent dyes.
The Parmelia saxatilis and Parmelia omphalodes, are largely used for dyeing brown of all shades. No mordant is needed, and the colours produced are the fastest known.
The grey Lichen, Ramalina scopulorum dyes a fine shade of yellow brown. It grows very plentifully on old stone walls, especially by the sea, and in damp woods, on trees, and on old rotten wood.
Boil the Lichen up in sufficient water one day, and the next put in the wool, and boil up again till the right colour is got. If the wool is left in the dye for a day or more after boiling it absorbs more colour, and it does not hurt the wool but leaves it soft and silky to the touch, though apt to be uneven in colour.
Some mordant the wool first with alum, but it does not seem to need it.
The best known of the dye Lichens are Parmelia saxatilis and Parmelia omphalodes which are still largely used for dyeing wool for tweeds.
Other Lichens also known for their dyeing properties are: Parmelia caperata, or Stone Crottle, which contains a yellow dye, P. ceratophylla, or Dark Crottle, and P. parietina, the common wall Lichen, which gives a colour similar to that of the Lichen itself, yellowish brown. A deep red colour can be got from the dull grey friable Lichen, common on old stone walls. The bright yellow Lichen, growing on rocks and walls, and old roofs, dyes a fine plum colour, if the wool is mordanted first with Bichromate of Potash.
Recipes For Dyeing With Lychens
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 quantity 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.
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