I spent the day prepping some soil into a large pan and simmering it for about an hour. I opted for some local soil from the park, rather than my precious Wainwright hoard!

I then used a sieve to drain it into a large bowl and placed three of the fabric pieces into the murky water, before leaving it overnight.

The next morning, I excitedly went to check my fabric only to discover there seemed to be no colour change.

I rinsed out the pieces anyway and hung them to dry.

Apart from the remnants of soil, there wasn’t an ounce of colour change. If anything, they just seemed to have faded slightly.

Then it dawned on me..

I hadn’t used a mordant!

Natural dyes will not adhere to natural fibres without the use of a mordant or fixative.

The usual mordant used is something like Aluminum Sulfate or Aluminum Acetate, but I don’t have those to hand and neither do I particularly want to use them. Luckily, there are alternatives which include, the use of salt, iron and copper. Iron can be obtained through boiling down old nails and copper through copper coins. As the copper gives more of a green effect (and is rather harmful!), I am opting to create an iron mordant from some old rusty nails.

Wish me luck!