Corn Husk Crafting – How to Dye Husks
Posted by Karen Bastille - 27/09/09 at 09:09 pm
Most corn-husk projects look best in natural color, but there are times you may want other tones.
For bright and vibrant shades use commercial fabric dye. Put two teaspoons of dye into a large mixing bowl and add very hot water. Akd one or two drops of liquid dish detergent, which seems to soften the husks so that they take the dye more evenly. Or you can add a small lump of alum instead of the detergent.
Put the husks in the dye bath, making sure they are all covered. Stir them once in a while as you
check for the shade you want. For a light tint, it is often enough just to dip the husks in and out of
the dye bath a few times. For deeper shades leave the husks in an hour or more. Rinse the husks
thoroughly under cool running water before you use them. And wear plastic gloves unless you like
green fingers!
For more subtle, earthy tones it’s fun to try natural dyes. Probably you have a few valuable dyes in your kitchen now, without knowing it.
Try onion skins to dye husks a deep rust color, or beet juice for a rich red. Grapes will give you a
beautiful purple, and blueberries, of course, turn out blue. These give up their color almost immediately. Turmeric, a herb in the ginger family, can be used for a deep yellow dye. The marigolds in your garden, or dahlias, or zinnias, when boiled in water, will yield shades from rust to lemon-yellow. Poplar leaves make a buttery yellow dye, and black walnut hulls can be cooked into a rich black dye.
When using plants, whether it be its leaf, flower, root, or bark, fresh or dry, crush or break it and let it stand overnight in water. Then boil the plant parts until the color begins to emerge. Poplar leaves
and walnut hulls have to be boiled for hours. Don’t forget to add the alum or detergent. Rinse dyed husks well before you use them.
