dying wool with madder

[Marcus Mummius]

Salvete,

Has anyone tried dyeing wool with madder at home? Did you achieve a good result? How did you do it?
What would work best: madder powder or chopped roots?

Thanks for the help,
Valete,

[derek forrest]

I have done a couple of Tunicae . Its easy enough . The main problem is finding a vat big enough to heat half a tunic in. It tends to be a bit tie diey but most of that washes out over time.
The root is cheaper but messier.
Colour varies a bit usually much more orange than you would imagine

[Marcus Mummius]

Did you treat the wool first with alumn or something similar? How long did you let the tunic in the vat? And at what temperature?

Best regards,

[Viventius]

Regarding colour, my group's dyers say that it depends on a lot of factors, including the mordant, and also the water. If the water's hard or soft, you'll get a variant in colour.

There are some useful notes on dyeing at:

http://www.halimal.com/WWW/dyes/dye_basics.php

A range of natural colours in general shown at:

http://www.42nd-dimension.com/NFPS/nfps_colours.html

[derek forrest]

mordant in alum and cream of Tartat 40 gms of alum 1 gm of tartar 82 for 45 mins.
then die with madder . a tunic weighs c 800gms so you need same weight of madder bring up to 60deg for an hour. Repeat as often as you like no boiling.