How to dye pink with loquat leaves
Pinks are so delicious, and I’m having a love affair with the earthy hues of apricot, muted rosey honey, coral, peachy-caramel… basically a whole lot of lovely names (check out my pink board here). Being able to create pink on fabric and yarn from green leaves feels like magic. I think natural and botanical dye really is pure magic isn’t it!
But it takes practice and lots of mistakes to get the real depth of peachy pink colours, rather than the softer muted tones when you’re not quite sure what you’re doing. I’ve done the experiments over this past year, with loquat leaves and sharing my tips and how-tos so you can get those delicious pinks too!
My needle case with silk, linen, cotton fabric scraps and silk thread dyed with loquat leaves pre-mordanted with alum
Here’s some of the colours I’ve been making lately, natural dye colours from my landscape in this Spring weather. Winter was wet, so the garden didn’t quite get going, and then early Spring has been mostly dry-ish. I’ve been dyeing a lot with loquat leaves, because they’re right there available, and also because they’re simply my favourite pink. Loquat pink is slightly more of an ‘earthy’ pink than avocado pink.
I thought I’d share a few experiments with the loquat leaves, and let you know what’s working for me to get the best pinks from the leaves, possible.
As with a lot of natural dyeing, the more weight of raw plant matter gives a more intense colour, and makes it easier to achieve the colour you’re after, rather than a subtle look. I snip or gently pull the leaves off the tree, without removing the buds (so it can continue growing), and fill a 20L saucepan with cut up leaves. This creates a great depth of colour for meters of linen, which is what I’m currently working with.
You can learn more about my natural dye experiments here, and my online course shares with you videos and how-tos if you’re ready to dive into the magical world of natural and botanical dye.
Natural Dyeing tips for getting pinks from loquat leaves
01 : Cut the leaves small, but you don’t need to shred them, and wash well if they’ve grown along a roadside.
02 : Soak the leaves, and gently gently heat them. Don’t boil them, ever. Under simmering point is best.
03 : The best pinks happen in the second extraction - ie: do one dye bath, which gives yellowish, and the strain off and re-fill the water. This second bath will give more real pinks.
04 : The colour takes days, and days, to extract the best pinks. So keep it on the heat over a few days. Turn it off periodically, then back on again. And allow the pot to simply do it’s thing over many days. The slow gentle heat combined with the oxidisation that happens is what I’ve found to give the best pinks for both loquat leaves and avocado seeds.
05 : Once you’re happy with the colour, you can strain off the leaves, and then add your fabric / yarn, and gently heat the pot again. Once again, DO NOT boil, only allow to a very slow simmer (at most).
Notes : I actually dye my fabric and yarn with the leaves still extracting colour in the pot; mostly because I’m conscious of using the least amount of resources to continue to heat my pot. So dyeing while extracting simply removes some of the time (energy resources).
Solar Dyeing : Solar dyeing is possible, but you do need to extract the colour from the leaves using heat first. I’ve found that solar dyeing tannin-rich dye stuffs (such as avocados and loquat leaves) doesn’t really give an excellent pink. So, once you’ve extracted the depth of colour you’re after, then you can gently heat the pot, with you fabric or yarn in the pot. Then put into a large glass jar and continue to process by solar dyeing.
Mordants : Loquat leaves are tannin-rich, which is a mordant itself, but I would always suggest that you pre-mordant your materials in your usual way. Alum (which is what I mostly use, quite sparingly) brightens the pinks, making them more intense pinks. I am still testing the soy milk mordant method. As loquat is a pink you can shift the colours by changing the ph, such as soda ash, vinegar, lemon. And iron will shift a little towards purple, but not a very intense purple.
Linen dyed with loquat leaves - a metal jar lid added as a Shibori resist created this moon pattern. This was the reverse of the piece on the right, and clamped together.
Linen dyed with loquat leaves - a rusty lid added as a Shibori resist created this speckled moon pattern.
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