Friday Focus: Pure Tinctoria

Article Added: 03/04/2009 11:10:04
This week we are continuing our feature which focuses on the artists, designers and companies who have gold listings on the site. Today we have been talking to Alison Daykin, owner of Pure Tinctoria, an online shop selling natural dyes.

One of the myths about Natural Dyes is that you can’t get the same extensive colour ways as you can with synthetic dyes. Can you dispel this myth for us
As with synthetic dyes, natural dyes can be mixed together or used to over dye each other. Pure Tinctoria dye extracts are all fully inter mixable and with over dyeing with indigo the full spectrum of colours can be achieved.  What I love about them is that all the colours complement each other, unlike synthetic dyes which often clash.

I run workshops for groups where each participant goes home with every dye that the group has dyed, plus all the modifications. So if there are 10 in the group they go home with 50 samples, each a different colour.

With the four dyes in the Mini Starter Kit you could potentially get 35 different colours, with all the modifiers and over dyeing with the indigo. And that’s using them at full strength, with tints the possibilities are endless as they say!

The Rivers Collection would potentially reveal 55 different colours without the tints. Who says that’s not extensive!

Are natural dyes very expensive compared to synthetic dyes
It’s true that some synthetic dyes are cheaper than natural dye extracts, but you do need different dyes for different fibres.  Acid dyes only dye animal fibres, wool, silk, etc. and Fibre Reactive dyes will dye cellulose plant fibres successfully, but will not dye animal fibres as well as acid dyes. All natural dyes will dye both animal fibres and cellulose fibres as long as a specific mordant is used.

Can you give us some examples of ways that artists can use the dyes you sell
There are an infinite number of ways that the dye extracts can be used, just as with synthetic dyes.  If you have a favourite method of dyeing with synthetic dyes, that method can be transferred to natural dye extracts, too. The most important thing is to accurately weight your fabric, yarn or fibre in their dry state and record the weights of dyes used. That way if you stumble upon a fabulous result and want to repeat it, you can refer to your records and know you will get a similar result.

The fabrics, yarns or fibres can be immersion dyed, where they are dunked into the dye pan completely, they can be dip dyed, partially immersed in one dye then into another and so on. The dyes can be painted onto the fabrics, fibres or yarns, with or without a thickener. With a thickener the dyes will penetrate without spreading, without a thickener, the dyes will almost diffuse gently across the fabric, yarn or fibres.

For random, but repeatable effects on yarns, I use a couple of “centre-pull ball” techniques.  In one technique I inject the dyes into the yarns and steam them to fix them.  As long as you accurately weight the dyes and inject into a similar place in each ball you can repeat your efforts.  In the other technique I make two dye baths which come half way up the balls and immerse them in each dye bath one after the other.

And that’s just scratching the surface!

Many of your dyes have been given the Global Organic Textile Standard Certification – what does this mean
The official definition of GOTS is: “The aim of the standard is to define requirements to ensure organic status of textiles, from harvesting of the raw materials, through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing up to labelling in order to provide a credible assurance to the end consumer.”
In short, it is a certification that ensures that, no matter where in the world an organic product is manufactured, all stages of production meet an international standard.  Whether it’s the production of the organic fibre, the dyes used, the dressing used in spinning or the products used to finish the fabrics, all should meet the same stringent standard.

Is extra care needed when washing items coloured using natural dyes What advice can you give to artists who want to use natural dyes but also protect the quality of their work
All the dyes have an international wash and light fastness number. Some are more wash and light fast than others, as are synthetic dyes. But I have not found, in practice, much fading during washing over the last three years of use.

For those of us who believe in “reducing, re-using, re-cycling”, traditionally, garments would have been sent back to the dyers for re-dyeing when they did fade. Maybe we should bring that tradition back!
Fabrics, yarns and fibres can be mordanted with the minimum of heat, by bringing slowly up to simmering point, so as not to shock the fibres and then simmering for 15 minutes. Then turn off the heat and leave in the dye pan for about 48 hours. Paint your dyes onto the fabrics, yarns and fibres for random effects and steam to set, which is much gentler method. Alternatively, place in a large glass jar out in the sun for as long as you can stand not to peak at the wonderful effects you are achieving!

You sell a range of Luxury Opportunity Packs, designed for creative embroiderers – can you tell us more about them
Oh, these are fabulous. They are produced by Jane Deane, a very talented dyer. Each pack contains a 25cm x 25cm piece of silk noil, silk muslin, cotton velvet or similar; assorted yarns, a minimum of 30m in length; silk fibres or wensleydale fleece; and either a silk carrier rod, 3 silk cocoons, buttons or similar.  All the contents are naturally dyed by hand using Pure Tinctoria dye extracts. Every pack is different and the colours are gorgeous, the images on the website really don’t do them justice.

Of course natural dyes can be used for dyeing and staining other things besides fabric, yarn and fibres.  They can be used to stain wood and as paints on paper. Jane Deane is developing a range of naturally dyed paper using Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts.

Alison has offered one lucky reader of this interview a free Mini Starter Kit worth over £10. The kit contains 25g Indus Madder, 25g Kango Myrobalan, 25g Nile Natural Indigo and 25g Pacific and all instructions to use and mix the dyes to create a wealth of different colours. For your chance to win the kit simply email your name and address to textiles@thehothive.com with ‘dye’ in the subject line. The offer closes on 30 April 2009 and the winner will be announced shortly afterwards. Good luck!

You can find more information about Pure Tinctoria here. To sign up for a gold listing so that you can appear in a Friday Focus article please click here or call us on 01386 760406. If you already have a gold listing on the site and would like to arrange your interview please email textiles@thehothive.com.