Red Onion

Again there was the collection of dry onion skins, boiled on the stove for about an hour and left to sit until the next morning.

The colors were in the same family as the yellow onion skins, but all a bit darker. Again, a fairly distinct color was garnered from the different minerals added. Tin brightened, whereas copper added the more red tones an iron the green.

So far the onion skins, both red and yellow, were the most successful plant dyes, based on the range of colors gathered from one plant -- if only I loved the fall colors as much as reds and purples.

Yellow Onion

I'm not sure when we started collecting the dry onion skins, but we saved the outside part every time we cooked with onions. It was a fair amount for sample dyeing, but I still found myself raiding the onion bin at the local food store for extra dry pieces that had been cast aside.

I separated the yellow onion skins from the red/purple ones wondering if it would make a difference and as it turned out it did, not dramatically different, but the yellow onions were much brighter than the red onions. These were definitely vibrant colors; beautiful colors if you like the fall golds, oranges and browns, a range one could weave many a tapestry or functional item. The tin mordant brought out the brightest colors; this was the first dye batch which really brought out the difference between the prealumed wools and non prealumed wools, every variation was a distinct color.

The colors shown from right to left are: no mordant, prealum, prealum + tin, tin only, prealum + copper, copper only, prealum + iron, iron only.