Natural Dyeing with Rudbeckia Flowers
This season I grew four different varieties of Rudbeckia to see if they would yield different natural dye colors. Last season I grew the regular Black Eyed Susan variety alongside the Green Eyes variety, which are both annuals in my agricultural zone. When testing them in the dye pot I discovered that the Black Eyed variety yielded a green-gray shade and the Green Eyes a clear yellow shade. This got me curious!
Below is a side-by-side comparison of the dye results I achieved with the Black Eyed Susan variety on the left, and Green Eyes on the right. The fabric is an organic cotton and hemp blend. Both samples were mordanted first with gall tannin at 15% WOF, then potassium aluminum sulfate at 12% and soda ash at 2% WOF. I share my favorite mordanting recipe for cellulose fabric here. To set up a dye bath I used dry flowers at 50% WOF. I added the flowers to the dye baths, then slowly brought the heat up to around 120°F then added the mordanted fabrics. I slowly brought the dye baths to a low simmer and held them there for an hour. The fibers were left to cool in the dye baths for a few hours before removing them.
The two new varieties I grew this season are Royal Burgundy and Double Golden Gloriosa, both perennial varieties. Below is a side-by-side comparison of the dye results I achieved with Royal Burgundy on the left and Gloriosa on the right. The shade that Gloriosa yielded is very similar to the regular Black Eyed Susan variety but the other varieties yielded significant differences in shades—more than is showing up in the photos. The fabric, mordanting processes, and dyeing methods I used are the same as the samples above.
I really love the warm green-yellow shade that is achieved by mixing equal amounts of regular Black Eyed Susan (or the Gloriosa variety) with Green Eyes shown below.
If you’d like to do some Rudbeckia dye experiments of your own I’ve got you covered! You can find all 4 varieties in the shop.
