In this video, Ethan walks you through his simple process of making natural walnut dye to stain/dye the fabric he uses in his traditional craft and accouterment projects.
Walnuts have been used since the early days of the Roman Empire to dye cloth and paper dark brown or black. In the early American Colonies, the walnut dye was used to color clothing, changing colors from light and bright to dark and earthy in color. Many items of a longhunter's attire would be stained or dyed with walnuts to help them blend into the American frontier.
How to make Natural Black Walnut Dye
Materials you will need
1 dye pot - I’m using an old waterbath canner
1 FIve gallon bucket of Black Walnuts WITH their hulls - For making a small batch, you don’t need to fill the bucket, remember it will cook down.
A firepit or stovetop
Enough water to fill your dye pot
Fabric that you’d like to dye
Step 1- Cook down & Concentrate your walnuts
If starting a fire, you’ll want to get a nice bed of embers going in your firepit before you get your water and walnuts around.
What we want to do first is get an idea of how much dye you want to make. In the above video, I made the mistake of adding a lot of walnuts, resulting in a very small amount of dye, but the dye was very concentrated. I recommend filling your dye pot about halfway with your walnuts, and then filling the pot with water until the walnuts float near the top of your pot.
Next, we’ll add our dye pot to our heat source. On your stovetop, you want to turn your heat to medium/low. Try to make a comparable pile of embers in your fire. The goal here is not to get a rolling boil, but a nice, long-lasting simmer.
I cooked my walnuts down for 8-12 hours to get a nice concentration of the dye. No matter where you are cooking your dye, you have to monitor it while it’s cooking. We don’t want you to burn anything down making walnut dye. Stir your water/nut mixture every few hours to make sure all your walnuts are cooking down.
Let rest until cool to the touch after you’ve finished applying heat.
Step 2
With our walnuts cooked and cooled down, now we want to separate them from the water. Gather a colander and a vessel for your dye. Place the colander in the vessel so that we can strain the walnuts from the dye, pour your dye pot’s contents into the colander and let the dye flow into your container.
A note on picking your straining device, if you want a nice clean finished piece, use a tighter strainer. Strainers with loose holes will allow some bits of the walnut hull to get through resulting in a more rustic finish.
Step 3
Now you are going to dump your walnut hulls and clean out your dye pot before adding your strained dye back into it and placing the dye pot back onto the fire. This is where the fun begins because you are going to add the fabric you’d like to dye into the pot and allow it to simmer for a few hours, stirring regularly.
As you place your fabric, it helps to have a wooden spoon or stick to push the fabric under the dye to ensure good coverage.
For our video, I let items sit for 6-8 hours to get a nice soak. You can leave your items in for as little as an hour and still get a color change from the dye.
Step 4
After your items have stewed for the appropriate time, allow your pot to cool until it and the contents are safe to touch.
Next, you’ll want to hang your items to prepare for rinsing. I use my clothesline, but you can use a large bucket of clean water and it will function the same. Using a garden hose, I spray down the fabric until the water running out the bottom is clean.
Let hang until dry and then you are ready to use your freshly dyed items!
I hope you have a chance to try out this simple project, it’s a fun way to spend an autumn day and add some character to your kit. If you do try this out for yourself, please send us your photos by tagging us on social media, or emailing them to media@nmlra.org, we’d love to see what you make!