Black Walnut Dye

I spent a couple of hours one morning walking around my parents' new property and found that they had two Black walnut trees. Walnuts were scattered all over the grass and with my recent passion for collecting nuts, I decided I would collect these black walnuts too. I collected several grocery bags worth before deciding I had enough. Over the next few days I started removing the outer hull from the nuts. I found out it was a time consuming process that was decidedly dangerous... in that anything and everything that got sprayed as I cracked open the hull, was instantly dyed brown. So, I had brown speckled legs, arms, feet... thankfully I knew enough to have gloves on and to be outside, however, my gloves ended up having a few holes and some of my fingers also got stained.

Nevertheless, the misfortune of having brown fingers gave me the brilliant idea to try and make a natural dye... something I have always wanted to try. With great enthusiasm I made my way to the local Samaritan center to pick up a used pot and a white shirt; then I waited for the right day to start the process.

Unlike my acorn flour adventure, I did a bit more research this time before starting the process, though that doesn't mean I followed all the directions to the T. So here's what I did:

 Collect about 15-20 Black walnuts

With gloves on, remove the hull (which is the green casing enclosing the nut) and place broken up hulls in an old nylon stocking. (The stocking is helpful in keeping all the pieces together and helps eliminate the need to strain out the pieces from the dye at the end.) The hull will oxidize very quickly to black... that's normal.

Place the stocking full of walnut hulls in an enamel or stainless steel pot with 1 gallon of water.

Bring the pot to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for one hour. For darker shades of brown, soak the hulls in the water for a longer period of time. (WARNING: the smell of walnut hulls cooking is strong, though not necessarily unpleasant, and will permeate everywhere... so be sure to have good ventilation, open windows, fans, etc.)

While the dye is simmering, prepare the fabric you plan to dye. In another pot, boil 1 gallon of water with 1/2 teaspoon of laundry soap and 1 Tablespoon of washing soda (though I used baking soda because that's all I had). Once it has boiled, reduce to a simmer and place whatever clothes/fabric you plan to dye into the hot water and stir.  Leave the fabric in, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes to 1 hour. I just turned off the heat and let it soak until I was ready to use it. This process removes any oils, dirt, or anything else that may hinder the dye from evenly coating your fabric.

At this point, some sites recommend placing your clean fabric in a fixative, which will allow your clothes to absorb the dye more readily. When making dye from plants (like black walnuts), the fixative would be 1 part white vinegar with 4 parts cold water. Let the clothes sit in this fixative solution for an hour and then rinse the clothes in cold water before dyeing. I didn't have vinegar, so I skipped this step.

When your dye is almost ready, remove the fabric from the cleaning pot and rinse thoroughly.

After an hour, I took everything outside so I wouldn't accidentally stain the kitchen. I carefully removed the stocking full of cooked hulls from the water and now I had a beautiful dark brown dye ready to be used. 

Place your still wet fabric into the dye and stir. Technically it is suggested that you continue to simmer the dye with the fabric. I decided the water was hot enough and I wasn't looking for a really dark shade of brown, so I just let the shirt soak. Every 10 minutes or so I would stir the shirt to make sure it would be evenly dyed. It also allowed me to monitor the color. You want to stain it at least one shade darker than you eventually want because when it dries, it will be lighter.

I soaked my shirt for about 30 minutes, then removed it from the dye and rinsed it in cold water until the water was running clear. If you want a richer shade, let it soak in the dye longer, even overnight if you want.
(WARNING: Make sure that you wash your dyed clothes separately the first time because some dye may still seep out and you wouldn't want to accidentally dye your other clothes.)

Yes, my gloves had holes and here's proof that the dye will stain your hands.

 Here's a before and after picture of the shirt I dyed. I actually really like the color that came out.

Since I had extra dye, I decided to stain one of my boards. The two boards were the exact same color, but as you can see the one on the right is now a rich brown after being stained with the Black walnut. I love it! 



Here is where I got my info:  Practical Primitive

And this awesome site gives a long list of other plants and what colors they create: natural dyes