Experiments with Red Amaranth (Part 1)

I have a long standing fued with using red amaranth for dye. It’s been completely unsuccessful. I have tried for about 4 or 5 years to produce a dye with amaranth. The first couple years I only got beiges. They did; however, make some beautiful eco prints. I also noticed that when there’s too many leaves the color is also beige. So it seems the flowers are key. Last year I was successful in getting pink dye, but then I accidentally left the fibers too long in the dye and the color seeped out and turned beige again. I had vowed, never again, especially considering it’s not a long lasting dye. It fades over time. BUT I know it’s one of the indigenous dyes for my area, and that there must be ways to use it successfully. Anyways. It continues to volunteer itself in the garden so I will continue to try to use it.

There are lots more plants and they seem even darker than past years, so they seem committed to this relationship, so I’m going to try again.

The issues I’ve had with it is that it’s so tempermental. It doesn’t do well in heat, so no prolonged boiling. I tried prolonged soaking in room temp, and while the color extracted, there was a point when it sat too long. So now I have to work out if I can use heat, and for how long. And then for how long can I allow it to soak.Once I determine that I can experiment with trying to make it a bit more light fast.

The problem sometimes when working with native plants to my area is that they are NOT the popular plants for natural dye culture. So that makes it harder to find info on it. And because it’s not light fast, I don’t think it’s used that often anymore. Especially when you can use something like cochineal to get the same colors. (But see my Oaxacan residency posts to see more about why we need to find sustainable alternatives to cochineal for our areas.)

Anyways. Here goes.

Trial #1-

I am trying to extract the color slowly in room temp water.

I left it overnight, and the color is extracting and is beautiful. I am concerned about my water to plant matter ratio, BUT I followed the steps we used during my residency, and only used enough to cover the flowers. My concern is that the liquid will be too saturated and won’t fully extract. I also, think I should’ve heated the water first to get it to go more quickly. I’m nervous to leave it another day, because I don’t want it to turn brown. I might also leave it until later this afternoon, and then remove some, and add new water, so I can experiment with temperature and not lose the dye that came out today.