KXRAMIC STUDIO 
165 
laborious processes of mordanting and oiling the material 
to be dyed. The ordinary turkey red and cardinal red 
are extremely good dyes, and the turkey red especially 
is a fast dye. If the red is required, I would suggest 
buying the material called turkey red, termed "oil dyed." 
It could be deepened in tone by madder or brown when 
it is found that the red is too bright for ordinary use. 
This is a good dye for wool: f of a pound of good 
madder to each pound of woolen cloth. The cloth is 
immersed in a weak alkaline bath at boiling temperature, 
and is then rinsed and dried. It is afterwards impreg- 
nated with a decoction of gall nuts, when it is again dried 
and put into a solution of alum. After rinsing and dry- 
ing it is put through a madder bath which is slowly raised 
to the boiling point in about an hour, the intensity of 
color depending upon the length of time it is boiled. Re- 
move the material and wash slightly. This operation is 
repeated after which it is washed in a hot soap bath and 
dried. As it is impossible to get the exact quantities, it 
will be seen how very difficult it is for an amateur to work 
this out for herself. 
A French recipe is used by some and this dye is said 
to possess extra lustre and beauty. Boil one pound of 
powdered cochineal in three gallons of water for 15 min- 
utes. Add one ounce of cream of tartar and continue 
boiling for 10 minutes. Add i\ ounces of powdered alum, 
continue boiling for 2 minutes, and remove from the fire, 
allowing it to stand 5 or 6 minutes. Pour into porcelain 
vessels until it settles. Drain and dry the deposited 
carmen for future use. 
RUST COLOR. 
This is of course a very easy dye to make, as it is 
obtained by allowing old iron to be left standing in water. 
It is absolutely permanent and makes the material a 
beautiful yellow. 
YELLOW DYE. 
One pound of fustic will dye 5 pounds of wool material. 
Alum, tartar, and spirits of tin make the fustic yellow light 
or bright. Acetate and sulphate of iron, and common 
salts darken it. The material dyed with this dye can 
be used when yellow is required, but by dipping it in the 
indigo vat a very permanent shade of green is given to it. 
Another good yellow can be obtained from dyeing with 
smart weed. 
CINNAMON BROWN. 
Immerse the material in alum, after which it should 
have a bath of madder. Next a bath of fustic to which 
a little green copperas has been added, this makes a 
beautiful clear brown. 
WALNUT. 
This is made from walnut or butternut stain by steep- 
ing the bark of the tree or the shell of the nut in the water, 
until the water is dark with color. Various shades of 
yellow, brown, dark brown, and green brown, can be 
obtained according to the strength of the decoction. If 
the nut or bark is used when green, yellow brown will be 
the result. It is also valuable in assisting to make blue 
green. The material is first dipped in the walnut stain, 
and then immersed in the indigo dye. It is also a very 
useful stain in setting the color of other dyed materials. 
A beautiful red can be obtained from poke berry but its 
fastness of color is obtained by dipping in the walnut stain. 
YELLOW BROWN. 
This can be made from boiling logwood chips in water, 
and the depth of the color is determined by the amount 
of logwood used. 
COPPERAS. 
Copperas can be bought at any country store and 
gives a fast nankeen colored dye. A beautiful pale green 
can be made by dipping the nankeen colored material 
in the indigo tub. 
BLACK DYE. 
Immerse 10 pounds of cloth into a boiling bath of 
water, which contains 3 pounds of sumac. Let the mate- 
rial steep until the concoction is quite cold, stirring it 
occasionally so that it is dyed equally all over. The next 
process is a bath of lime water. Drain the material for 
a few minutes and put into a solution of warm water con- 
taining two pounds of copperas. The material can now 
be hung up for an hour on the clothes line, when it is again 
passed through the bath of lime water. When it is al- 
most dry it requires another bath in which three pounds 
of logwood and one pound of fustic have been added. Re- 
move the material and add a quarter of a pound of cop- 
peras after which the material is returned to its bath, 
and worked well with a couple of sticks for half an hour. 
Another black dye much used by the Navajo Indians 
is made from the twigs and leaves of the aromatic sumac, 
yellow ochre, and the gum of the pinon. A quantity of 
leaves and branches of the sumac are put into the boiler 
and boiled for five or six hours until a strong concoction 
is made. While the water is boiling the ochre can be ground 
to a fine powder, when it is slowly roasted over the fire 
until it assumes a beautiful pale brown color. It is then 
removed and mixed with an equal quantity of pinon gum. 
The mixture is then put on the fire and constantly stirred 
until the whole mass becomes mushy. As the roasting 
proceeds it gradually becomes dryer and darker until at 
last it is reduced to a fine black powder. When it is cool 
it is thrown into the decoction of sumac. This is essen- 
tially a fast black dye. Any of the dyes I have recom- 
mended would also be valuable for dyeing material for 
making pulled rugs. 
In dyeing with vegetable dyes it will be found that 
natural stains and dyes can be made from numerous 
roots, barks, and bog plants. One reason why it is so hard 
to get recipes for these dyes is because the women find 
them out for themselves and choose to have a "dog in 
the manger" attitude towards others working in the same 
direction. How much better it would be if a co-opera- 
tion in exchanging recipes and experiments could be 
evolved. It seems so contemptible to be selfish about 
helping others in the same direction. 
WARPS. 
The best warp to buy is known in the trade as 4-8 
and a white warp is the most useful for all purposes, as 
nearly all the warps that come ready dyed fade, and it is 
extremely difficult for an amateur to keep warps in good 
condition if she dyes them herself. If the warps once get 
mixed up nothing can be done with them. The ready 
dyed tobacco brown warp holds its color fairly well, and 
the bright red also holds its color, but it is so rarely that 
one can ever use a red warp that it is practically ruled 
out for utilitarian purposes. I know that many people 
advise the home dyeing of warps, but after a great deal 
of experimenting in this direction, I have concluded that 
