YELLOW
WELD OLD FUSTIC TURMERIC QUERCITRON DYER'S BROOM HEATHER AND OTHER
YELLOW DYES
Weld, _Reseda luteola_, is an annual plant growing in waste places.
The whole plant is used for dyeing except the root. It is the best and
fastest of the yellow natural dyes.
The plant is gathered in June and July, it is then carefully dried in
the shade and tied up in bundles. When needed for dyeing it is broken
into pieces or chopped finely, the roots being discarded, and a
decoction is made by boiling it up in water for about 3/4 hour. It
gives a bright yellow with alum and tartar as mordant. With chrome it
yields an old gold shade; with tin it produces more orange coloured
yellows; with copper and iron, olive shades. The quantity of weld used
must be determined by the depth of colour required. Two per cent of
stannous chloride added to the mordant gives brilliancy and fastness
to the colour. Bright and fast orange yellows are got by mordanting
with 8 per cent stannous chloride instead of alum. With 6 per cent
copper sulphate and 8 per cent chalk, weld gives a good orange yellow.
Wool mordanted with 4 per cent of ferrous sulphate and 10 per cent
tartar and dyed in a separate bath with weld with 8 per cent chalk,
takes a good olive yellow. 8 per cent of alum is often used for
mordant for weld. A little chalk added to the dye bath makes the
colour more intense; common salt makes the colour richer and deeper.
Weld is of greater antiquity than most, if not all, other natural
yellow dyes. It is cultivated for dyeing in France, Germany and Italy.
It is important as it dyes silk with a fast colour.
(1) OLD GOLD
Mordant with 2 per cent chrome and dye with 60 per cent of weld in a
separate bath. 3 per cent chalk adds to intensity of colour.
(2) YELLOW
Mordant with alum, and dye with 1 lb. of weld for every pound of wool.
Common salt deepens the colour. If alum is added to the dye bath, the
colour becomes paler and more lively. Sulphate of iron inclines it to
brown.
(3) ORANGE
Mordant with alum with a little weld in the bath. Dye with weld. Add
teaspoonful of tin to the dye bath. Boil in separate bath with 1/4 oz.
madder or cochineal to the pound.
_OLD FUSTIC_
Fustic is the wood of _Morus tinctoria_, a tree of Central America. It
is used principally for wool. With Bichromate of Potash as mordant,
Old Fustic gives old gold colour. With alum it gives yellow, inclining
to lemon yellow. The brightest yellows are got from it by mordanting
with tin. With copper sulphate it yields olive colours (4 to 5 per
cent copper sulphate and 3 to 4 per cent tartar). With ferrous
sulphate darker olives are obtained (8 per cent ferrous sulphate). For
silk it does not produce as bright yellows as weld, but can be used
for various shades of green and olive. Prolonged dyeing should always
be avoided, as the yellows are apt to become brownish and dull.
RECIPES FOR DYEING WITH OLD FUSTIC
(1) OLD GOLD
Boil the wool with 3 to 4 per cent chrome for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Wash,
and dye in a separate bath for 1 to 1-1/2 hours at 100 deg.C. with
20 to 80 per cent of old fustic.
(2) OLD GOLD
Mordant with 3 per cent chrome, for 3/4 hour and wash. Dye with 24 per
cent fustic and 4 per cent madder for 45 minutes.
(3) BRIGHT YELLOW
Mordant wool with 8 per cent of stannous chloride for 1 to 1-1/2
hours, and 8 per cent of tartar. Wash, and dye with 20 to 40 per cent
of fustic.
(4) GREENISH YELLOW
Mordant wool with 3 per cent chrome, for 3/4 hour and wash. Dye with 6
per cent fustic, 33 per cent logwood. Boil 3/4 hour.
(5) YELLOW
Mordant with 25 per cent alum, wash after laying by for 2 days, dye
with 5 to 6 oz. fustic to lb.
_TURMERIC_
Turmeric is a powder obtained from the ground-up tubers of _Curcuma
tinctoria_, a plant found in India and other Eastern countries. It
gives a brilliant orange yellow, but has little permanence. It is one
of the substantive colours and does not need any mordant. Cotton has a
strong attraction for it, and is simply dyed by working in a solution
of Turmeric at 60 deg.C. for about 1/2 hour. With silk and wool it
gives a brighter colour if mordanted with alum or tin. Boiling should
be avoided. It is used sometimes for deepening the colour of Fustic
or Weld, but its use is not recommended, as although it gives very
beautiful colours, it is a fugitive dye.
_QUERCITRON_
Quercitron is the inner bark of the _Quercus Nigra_ or Q. tinctoria, a
species of oak growing in the United States and Central America. It
was first introduced into England by Bancroft in 1775 as a cheap
substitute for weld. He says,
"The wool should be boiled for the space of 1 or 1-1/4 hours
with one sixth or one eighth of its weight of alum; then,
without being rinsed, it should be put into a dyeing vessel
with clean water and also as many pounds of powdered bark
(tied up in bag) as there were used of alum to prepare the
wool, which is then to be turned in the boiling liquor until
the colour appears to have taken sufficiently: and then
about 1 lb. clean powdered chalk for every 100 lbs. of wool
may be mixed with the dyeing liquor and the operation
continued 8 or 10 minutes longer, when the yellow will have
become both lighter and brighter by this addition of chalk."
Flavin is extract of Quercitron bark, and is much used for bright
yellow with tin.
YELLOW (1 lb.)
Mordant with alum. Dye with 1 oz. Flavin.
ORANGE WITH FLAVIN OR QUERCITRON (1 lb.)
Put into bath first 1/2 oz. Cream of Tartar. Then 3/4 oz. tin mixed
with water (important to enter the Tartar first). Enter yarn and boil
for 45 minutes. In the meantime have mixed up 1/2 oz. Flavin and 1/2
oz. to 3/4 oz. Cochineal (according to depth of orange required) with
1/4 oz. tin with a little warm water. Remove yarn, enter flavin,
madder and tin, take off the boil, enter yarn and stir well. Boil 30
minutes.
_BARBERRY_
The roots and bark of _Berberis Vulgaris_ is used principally for silk
dyeing, without a mordant. The silk is worked at 50 deg. to 60 deg.C.
in a solution of the dye wood slightly acidified with sulphuric, acetic
or tartaric acid. For dark shades mordant with stannous chloride.
_DYER'S BROOM_
_Genista Tinctoria._ The plant grows on waste ground. It should be
picked in June or July and dried. It can be used with an alum and
tartar mordant and gives a good bright yellow. It is called greening
weed and used to be much used for greening blue wool.
_PRIVET_
_Ligustrum Vulgare._ The leaves dye a good fast yellow with alum and
tartar.
_HEATHER_
Most of the heathers make a yellow dye, but the one chiefly used is
the Ling, _Calluna vulgaris_. The tips are gathered just before
flowering. They are boiled in water for about half-an-hour. The wool,
previously mordanted with alum or chrome according to the shade of
yellow wanted, is put into the dye bath with the boiling liquor, which
has been strained. It is then covered up closely and left till the
morning. Or the wool can be boiled in the heather liquor till the
desired colour is obtained.
_ONION SKINS_
Prepare by mordanting with alum. Take a sufficient quantity of onion
skins and boil for 30 minutes. This gives a good yellow. The addition
of tin will make the colour more orange.