Lost Arts 3 - Natural Dyeing Trivia Quiz

Answer: A dye actually chemically bonds with what is being dyed, paints do not

Through a variety of chemical processes, dyes actually bond with whatever is being dyed. This makes them much more permanent than paints, which just sit on the surface of the painted object.

Answer: Cochineal

Cochineal is a red dye derived from scale insects that live on prickly pear cacti. Thousands must be harvested to produce a pound of dye. Another animal dye is Tyrian purple, squeezed from certain varieties of shellfish.

Answer: Molds

Many types of mushrooms, especially shelf fungi and members of the genus Cortinarius, yield beautiful dyes of many colors. Many lichens, including cudbear and oakmoss, produce dyes. Bracken ferns are the most commonly used fern in dyeing.

Answer: Mordants

"Mordant" comes from the Latin for "bite." Mordants help colors "bite" into the cloth.

Answer: Silver

Alum (aluminum potassium sulfate) is the most commonly-used mordant. Iron produces deeper shades, and copper can intensify some dyes. Other less-common mordants are tin and chrome.

Answer: Cutch

Cutch, derived from a species of acacia tree, is used to produce browns. Madder root, the leaves of some species of eucalyptus, and cochineal insects all produce red dyes.

Answer: Woad

Woad was the traditional dye used to make the tattoos of Picts and Scottish warriors, among others. Both woad and indigo contain a blue pigment that, in order to be fixed to cloth, must be chemically reduced. This was done by fermentation with urine to remove oxygen from the solution. Once the reduced chemical solution (which was no longer blue, but greenish or brownish) bonded with the cloth, it was exposed to oxygen, and oxidized into permanent blue pigment. Today, it is done with chemicals such as soda ash and dye color remover instead- much less smelly!

Answer: Shellfish

Certain Murex shellfish secrete a purple dye to drive off predators. Their sacrifices instead were often used to dye the robes of kings and royalty. Today, although natural Tyrian purple is used in some parts of the world, most natural dyers use other sources such as logwood and alkanet.

Answer: Green

This surprises many people, but pure greens (as opposed to greenish-browns) are very difficult to obtain with just one dye. Usually, the material is first dyed yellow with a dye such as osage orange, then overdyed with blue, such as indigo, to produce a true green.

Answer: Brazil

Brazil was the source of brazilwood, the wood of a tropical tree in the pea family that produced a valuable red dye. The tree was named by the Portuguese long before the country.