Here’s an addition to the plant dying article (stained in onions) from a few weeks ago.
The other day I gathered a bunch of acorns, maybe 50 or so, the other day. They’ve all gone brown, and I didn’t bother to remove the caps. I covered them in water, and boiled them for an hour. The water turns dark stained. I then removed the acorns and added some white yarn, two shades of grey yarn, and some white mohair yarn as well. Simmered that in the dye bath for 30 or 40 minutes, and ended up with a nice deep brown, darker in the grey wools of course. The tannins in the acorns should result in a colour fast result, so no need to use a mordant (or so I’ve read). Anyway, if you’re in an area with lots of oaks, and you’re one to play around with dying your own, this is an easy one that results in a good colour.
I just read on the net that you can get a black dye from acorns. If you grind up about 15-20 acorns, boil that to get the dye bath, then soak your material in that overnight. The next day, make a mixture with about 1 cup of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of rust (or a pad of steel wool), and soak your material in that over night. The iron interacts with the tannins from the acorns and the end result should be black. (Best to wear rubber gloves as it will dye your hands).
I’ve not tried that myself, but I’ve read that iron as a mordant does tend to result in darker colours.
Just the acorns gives a orange to brown colour on tying materials… … acorns, rust & lemmon gives a almost black colour… acorns, aluminum & lemon gives a medium silver colour…poke berries gives a light purple to a lavander colour… red seeds from magnollia cones givea a pale pink… holly berries gives ya a peach to a orange-red colour… possum grapes or muskidimes gives a blue to dark blue colour… too many different plants & berries & roots to list here without wrighting a book on the subject… acorns are also great for tanning furs… you grind up acorns till they are as fine as you can possibly get them (the finer the better), place the fur on a board with fur side towards the board… next scrape the fat from the skin side if there is any left on it… rub the ground acorns on the skin side about to the thickness of a penny and let it dry… peel the acorns off then take the fur from the bord and work it a little & pin it back to the bord again… apply a new coat of ground acorns… 3 -5 times is normally what it takes to get a nice soft & plyable fur… if the fur is white & you hapen to get some acorn on the fur side its gonna dye that part of the fur…
Yes, it will work. Strong black tea with rusty iron will do the same thing. I have used this method on very hard to dye natural materials back in my saddlemaking days.