You don’t need a dye garden or a fiber studio to start working with natural color. You need onion skins saved in a paper bag, avocado pits from last week’s guacamole, and a pot you’ll never use for cooking again.
This guide covers 17 dye plants across three categories — kitchen and pantry, garden, and foraged — selected for US Hardiness Zones 5–7. Every plant is beginner-accessible, regionally relevant, and paired with the exact information you need to get color onto fiber the first time.
What’s inside:
- 6 kitchen and pantry dye plants — yellow onion skins, avocado pits and skins, red onion skins, black bean soak water, turmeric, and used coffee grounds — no garden required
- 8 garden dye plants for Zones 5–7 — coreopsis, marigold, goldenrod, black-eyed Susan, dyer’s chamomile, weld, Japanese indigo, and purple basil — with planting and harvest notes
- 3 foraged plants from our backyard — black walnut, staghorn sumac, and curly dock — with foraging ethics and ID tips
- Mordant guide — alum, iron, tannin, and no-mordant plants explained in plain language
- Step-by-step basic dye process — from scouring fiber through washing and drying
- Full color reference chart — all 17 plants with color result, mordant, plant parts, and harvest season at a glance
Purchase once, download immediately, keep forever. No subscription, no account required.
From the studio of Blue Thistle Fibers — the only production-scale fiber mill and natural dye teaching space in the New River Gorge region.
