Bottoming: Dyeing cloth one color before overdyeing it to create a second color.
Bucking or bowking: Soaking fabric in an alkaline solution or series of solutions.
Dye: Coloring matter dissolved in solution.
Dye bath, dye liquor: The solution of dyestuffs and water.
Dyestuff: Plant, animal or mineral matter from which dye is extracted.
Fast dye: Dyes that do not appreciably fade over time or under the influence of sunlight.
Fix or fixing a dye: Making a dye permanent or fast.
Fugitive dye: Dyes that fade over time or under the influence of sunlight.
Fulling/fullers: Cloth is impregnated with fuller"s earth and pounded, then rinsed. People who do this are fullers.
Gra.s.sing or crofting: Laying fabric out on the bleachfield and leaving it for weeks or months while the sun"s action bleaches out the color.
Mordant: Chemical, often metallic salt, which a.s.sists in the bonding of the dyestuff to the fiber.
Napping/nappers: Finished cloth is brushed to raise the nap, and then the nap is sheared off. People who do this are nappers.
Sadden: The darkening of a dye by the choice of mordant.
Sericine: Silk is composed of sericine and fibroin; sericine is the component that causes the fibers to stick together, and which can prevent dye from being taken up by the fibroin.
Scouring: Cleansing wool.
Souring: Soaking cloth in a slight acidic solution to neutralize the alkaline bleach.
Substantive dyes: Dyes that are fast without need for a mordant.
Vat dye: Dye such as indigo or woad which uses a fermentation process to fix the color.
B. Dyes and Mordants Abfeilinch: filings, presumably of iron (mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script).
Alkanet [Anchusa tinctoria]: Source of a somewhat fugitive red dye.
Alum: Probably aluminum ammonium sulfate. Mined as well as found in club moss. Used as a mordant. German term appears to have been "alaun."
Attichpleter: Leaves of the dwarf elder tree (dyestuff mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script). Color unknown.
Aychephel: Oak galls (mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script).
Bedstraw [Galium verum]: The shoots are a source of yellow dye, while the roots are a source of red.
Barberry [Berberis Vulgaris]: Source of a somewhat fugitive yellow dye. Mentioned as Peizzelpaum in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script.
Black walnut sh.e.l.ls [Juglans nigra]: Source of a brown dye. Nusscheln (meaning nutsh.e.l.ls) are mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script, and may refer to the black walnut.
Blue vitriol: Copper sulfate. Also known as copper vitriol, blue copperas and Roman vitriol. A common mordant. Copper acetate was also used as a mordant.
Brazilwood [Caesalpinia echinata, C. sappan]: Source of a fugitive red dye. Mentioned as Presilig in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script.
Buckthorn: Source of a yellow dye.
Cochineal [Dactylopius coccus]: Insect ground to produce a red dye.
Copperas: Ferrous sulfate (also known as green copperas). A common mordant.
Cream of Tartar: Pota.s.sium hydrogen tartrate or Pota.s.sium bitartrate. Used as an "a.s.sistant" to mordants, particularly alum.
Dyer"s broom aka woodwaxen, greenweed [Genista tinctoria]: Source of a yellow dye.
Dyer"s sawwort [Serratula tinctoria]: Source of a yellow dye.
Fustic [Chlorophora tinctoria]: Source of a dull yellow dye. Fustic is native to the Americas.
Holdern: Elder (mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script). It is unclear what part of the plant was used and what color was produced.
Indigo [Indigofera tinctoria, Baptisia t.]: Source of blue dye. Mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script as Indich.
Kermes [Kermes ilicis]: The female insect is a source of red dye.
Logwood aka Campeachy wood or blackwood [Haematoxylon campechianum]: Source of a fugitive lavender and a fast black dyes.
Madder [Rubia tinctorum]: The most common source of red dye.
Ma.s.salterein/s: Maple (mentioned in the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script). It is unclear which tree is meant. The bark of some maples produces a rosy-tan dye.
Orchil [Rocella tinctoria]: Lichen source of purple dye.
Polish berry [Margarodes polonicus]: Insect source of red dye.
Potash: Pota.s.sium Carbonate. Wood ash.
Safflower [Carthamus tinctorius]: Source of a fugitive yellow dye and an insoluble orangish-red dye.
Saffron [Crocus sativus]: Source of a well-known yellow dye. It may not actually have been used often as a dyestuff, because of its expense.
Tin: As a mordant, tin brightens colors. Discovered as a mordant in 1630. Likely used in the form of stannous chloride.
Tyrian purple: An ancient dye extracted from some species of the Purpura and Murex mollusks.
Weld aka dyer"s rocket, dyer"s weed [Reseda luteola]: Most common source of yellow dye.
Woad [Isatus tinctoria]: Source of a blue dye, it contains the same colorant as indigo, in much lesser concentration. Erfurt in Thuringia was the center of the German woad industry.
VI. Bibliography Adrosko, Rita J. Natural Dyes and Home Dyeing, (Dover: New York, 1971).
Baumann, Wolf-Rudiger, The Merchants Adventurers and the Continental Cloth-trade (1560s-1620s) (Walter de Gruyter: Berlin, 1990).
Bemiss, Elijah, The Dyer"s Companion, 3rd ed. (Dover: New York, 1973) reprint of the 1815 edition.
Bronson, Bennet, "An Industrial Miracle in a Golden Age: the 17th Century Cloth Exports of India," (n.d.) J. and R. Bronson, Early American Weaving and Dyeing: the Domestic Manufacturer"s a.s.sistant and Family Directory in the Arts of Weaving and Dyeing, (Dover, New York: 1971) reprint of the 1817 edition.
Buchanan, Rita, A Dyer"s Garden, (Interweave Press: Loveland CO, 1995).
Ca.s.selman, Karen Leigh, Craft of the Dyer: Colour from Plants and Lichens, 2nd ed. (Dover: New York, 1993).
Druding, Susan C., "Dye History from 2600 BC to the 20th Century," (1982) Drea, "Dye Recipes from the Innsbruck Ma.n.u.script,"(2000) ~drea/dyes/about.html.
Mariegola Dell"Arte de Tentori, published in Italy in 1429, referred to at Heather, "A Brief History of Dyestuffs & Dyeing," (2000) Jennifer, "Anne Liese"s Fibers and Stuff: Sources for Archaeological Records of Dyes," (1993) Plictho of Gioanventura Rosetti: Instructions in the Art of the Dyers which Teaches the Dyeing of Woolen Cloths, Linens, Cottons, and Silk by the Great Art as Well as by the Common originally published (also in Italy) in 1548, referred to at following articles were all found in the Digital Archive of Doc.u.ments on Weaving. Textiles, Lace, and Related Topics.: ( the, "Bleaching" (1903).
Chamber"s Encyclopedia, "Bleaching," (1881) p. 148.
-, "Dyeing," (1881) p. 718.
d.i.c.k"s Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes, "Art of Dyeing," (n.d.) p. 31.
-, "Bleaching," (n.d.) p. 175.
Domestic Encyclopedia, "Dyeing," (1821) p. 90.
-, "Mordants," (1821).
Encyclopaedia Perthensis, "Bleaching," (1803) vol. 4, p. 1.
Encyclopedia Britannica, "Bleaching," 1st ed. (1771) vol. 1, p. 561.
-, "Botany: List of Dyeing Plants," 1st ed. (1771) vol. 1, p. 633.