Students, colleges, home dyers - dye the Shilasdair way! Our access to bulk imports for our own purposes guarantee the most inexpensive mail order prices on the web too!
Dyes and mordants may be purchased individually for use here in your own recipes or in starter packs which come with basic instructions. Note that for enviromental reasons we do not approve of chrome mordant and do not use it.
Iron free Aluminium Sulphate : A traditional aluminium based mordant, as effective in our opinion as the alternative inorganic salt, potassium aluminium sulphate, and a lot cheaper. Use with tartaric acid in ratio 3:1 in premordant solutions.
1kg tub
2.5kg tub
Tartaric Acid :
1kg tub
Aluminium Cold Mordant : Save energy, save the planet! Shilasdair cold mordant is based on an organic rather than inorganic salt of aluminium. It comes with all the advantages of pre-mordanting ( superior light fastness etc ) but without the energy expenditure. Soak yarn cold for 3 days in a dedicated vessel, wring out the yarn into the vessel then simply top up to retain the original strength for the next batch. 500g will dye more than 5kg of yarn with careful usage. Full instructions provided. No tartaric required.
500g tub
2.5kg tub
Cochineal : Use 10 - 25% w/w for delicate rose pinks to deep magenta.
100g
500g tub
2kg tub
Lac Extract : Alternative to cochineal, very slightly on orangey red rather than magenta side of spectrum. Use 2 - 5% w/w
100g
250g
Logwood Extract : Saves boiling logwood chips. Very pH sensitive, range of colours from fuscia to lavender, combine with lac or cochineal in reverse dipping for wonderful variegated colours. Use 0.5 - 1.5% w/w
100g
250g
Indigo Powder : Prepared in the traditionareduction solution for careful immerse dyeing. Must be dissolved in caustic soda and reduced with sodium dithionite ( note, these are soil association approved chemicals that will quickly neutralize in the effulent especially if you are using organic acids as assistants in your other dye recipes. ) Use 1 - 5% w/w, topping up for re-usage.
100g
500g
Caustic Soda : Don't buy online! Better and safer to purchase cheaply from any hardware store where it is stocked for drain cleaning etc. One kilo would be plenty for 500g indigo.
Sodium Dithionite : Approximate usage is for twice as much as indigo purchased.
100g x 2
500g
Chopped Madder Root : The unmistakeable, chemically unreproducable, source of orange-reds from brick and ochre to the colour tones of fire itself! Use 50 - 100%
500g
2.5kg tub
Marigold Yellow : An Indian sourced natural dye yellow containing principally concentrated marigold powder. Use 5 - 20%
100g
500g
Copper Sulphate : Acceptable chemical dye assistant used to deepen or 'sadden' colour tones. Used at about 1% w/w. Buy from us for convenience or cheaper from your garden centre as it is a soil conditioner.
100g
500g
Tin Tin Chloride : Tin is used as a colour enhancer and brightener, particularly for reds and yellows. At the tiny quantities we use in just a few of our recipes we think that unlike chrome it is acceptable in the enviroment. Still, it is a heavy metal, treat with caution, wear gloves etc. Use at 0.1 - 1% w/w maximum.
100g
500g
Acetic Acid : Or vinegar in other words! Buy from the supermarket and use as a pH controlling agent with most dye recipes - be careful with logwood!