The dyeing of textiles and other materials is a rewarding and delightful way to bring the colors of nature to daily living. In this fascinating book, the authors have compiled extensive information to bring the techniques, plants, and lore of natural dyeing within every reader s reach."

Simply written text, accompanied by detailed line illustrations of plants, explains how to select and mix natural colors of wool and prepare "recipes" for producing specific colors of dye from desert plants, among them single-flowered actinea for yellow, alder bark for a soft brown, the Rocky Mountain bee plant for a pale greenish yellow, more.

Handsome line drawings of 126 common, roadside plants are included with tips on how to use them to obtain a range of warm, subtle colors.

"'Harvesting Color' presents the entire process of infusing your life with color--finding the right plants, harvesting them at the best time, transforming the crop into beautiful dye, and, finally, marring pigment to fiber. In this beautiful book, Rebecca Burgess showcases thre dozen common plants that yield striking hues. Citing fascinating botanical lore, she demystifies the process of recognizing each plant in the wild. For those you can grow yourself, she details when to sow the seed and how to nuture the plant. For all the plants, you'll learn the optimal time to harvest, as well as how to extract the best dyes" --Cover flap.

Describes Chippewa techniques of gathering and preparing nearly two hundred wild plants of the Great Lakes area and provides information on their medicinal usage and botanical and common names. Bibliogs

An extraordinary compilation of the plants used by North American native peoples for medicine, food, fiber, dye, and a host of other things. Anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman has devoted 25 years to the task of gathering together the accumulated ethnobotanical knowledge on more than 4000 plants. More than 44,000 uses for these plants by various tribes are documented here. This is undoubtedly the most massive ethnobotanical survey ever undertaken, preserving an enormous store of information for the future.

Jenny Dean's Wild Colour is the modern classic title on traditional dyeing methods. A celebration of the wealth of natural dyes that can be obtained from over 60 species of plants from common marigolds to rhubarb. Part one introduces the concept of natural dyeing and demonstrates how easy it is to get started. All the techniques are explained with step-by-step sequences and photographs. Colour charts help you to work out which method is best for each dye plant and material.Part two reveals the wide range of plants that you can use for natural dyeing. Colour swatches show the tried and tested range of colours you can extract from each plant.

All around us there are wild plants good for food, medicine, clothing, and shelter, but most of us don't know how to identify or use them. Delena Tull amply supplies that knowledge in this book, one of the first focused specifically on plants that grow in Texas and surrounding regions of the South and Southwest. Extensively illustrated with black-and-white drawings and color photos, this book includes the following special features: Recipes for foods made from edible wild plants. Wild teas and spices. Wild plant dyes, with instructions for preparing the plants and dying wool, cotton, and other materials. Instructions for preparing fibers for use in making baskets, textiles, and paper. Information on wild plants used for making rubber, wax, oil, and soap. Information on medicinal uses of plants. An identification guide to hay fever plants and plants that cause rashes. Instructions for distinguishing edible from poisonous berries. Detailed information on poisonous plants, including poison ivy, oak, and sumac, as well as herbal treatments for their rashes.

This book describes some 300 plants and 30 animals (marine mollusks and scale insects) that are used as sources for natural dyes. Botanical or zoological details are given for each source and the chemical structures is shown for each dye. Dyes employed by different civilisations, identified by dye analyses, are illustrated and relevant historical recipes and detailed descriptions of dyeing processes by traditional dyers are quoted and explained in the light of modern science. Other current uses of natural colorants, e.g. in medicine and for food and cosmetics, and replacement of synthetic by natural dyes are also noted.