Through Rose-Colored Glasses: Dyeing with Cochineal

Silk satin ribbon dyed with cochineal, alum mordant Using the book Colours from Nature: A Dyer's Handbook by Jenny Dean, I dyed some fabrics with cochineal, using an alum mordant. I started with the bugs themselves and ground them up in a Krups coffee grinder. (No mortar and pestle for me -- it takes too long!) Silk takes dyes brilliantly, I've found, so it's my fabric of choice. Instant and immense gratification. The ribbon you see above was soaked for maybe two days in an alum mordant solution. Silk gauze dyed with cochineal, alum mordant This silk gauze (above) was dyed using the same recipe. Because the fabric is so light and airy, it doesn't have the brilliant fuschia/red that you see with the silk ribbon. Still, this delicate pink is quite lovely! Wool locks dyed with cochineal, alum mordant I threw these wool locks in at the last minute -- mordanted in alum for maybe 1/2 hour, no scouring, simply dyed "in the grease." Perhaps I'm seeing the