Iron (Ferrous Sulfate) is used alone as a mordant, as a color shifter and to increase lightfastness when used in combination with other natural dyes. It also used as a reducing agent for certain types of indigo vats. Iron is a versatile ingredient for the natural dyer.
You can add it directly to a dye bath, mordant with iron or iron and alum or tannin, put it in a spray bottle or shift colors. DIY Iron Mordant Recipe for Natural Dyeing and Eco Printing. Learn how to make an Iron and Copper Mordant for Plant Dyeing and Eco Dyeing.
How to make your own iron water for natural dyeing. Modify the colors using iron water and expand the color palette in natural dyeing. Tutorial.
Making an iron modifier or iron mordant is easy. This solution works to more permanently set plant dyes, while also altering the final color. Iron reacts most strongly to dyes from plants with lots of tannins.
So if you dye with say, lac which is a dye made from the secretions of a bug and does not contain much tannin, the iron will have little effect. Iron can also be used to dye plant fibres like cotton and linen on its own or in combination with tannin. There are two common forms of iron, ferrous sulphate and iron acetate, both salts of iron.
The 'iron' commonly sold for dyeing is ferrous sulphate or ferrous sulfate, which is an iron salt. This blog post is all about iron (ferrous sulfate) as a natural dye modifier. When it comes to natural dyeing, iron plays an important role and you will come across it frequently.
It can be used for different purposes but, personally, I mainly use it as a modifying agent for naturally dyed colorways. Table of Content: Characteristics and Uses of Iron (II) Sulfate How to Use Iron as a Modifier. Contrary to popular belief, learning how to make iron water for dyeing is easy to do! Take the next step in the process with these steps.
Master natural dyeing with iron water using this complete guide.