Wild Color: A Comprehensive Guide to Crafting with Natural Dyes - Revised and Updated Edition

Amazon Customer: A super fun book with great information! It really makes you excited to play around with natural, non- toxic dyes.

United States on Aug 17, 2023

Stella: A lot of information. Easy reading.

United States on Jul 19, 2023

PenMOMship: 90% of this book focuses on yellow! Blue makes a very tiny appearance. Reds, oranges and browns share the page with yellow...not a book for me!

Canada on Apr 20, 2023

Mary Lou Price: The book I received was as represented.

United States on Feb 20, 2023

Claire: I have been using natural dyes for quite some time, but this book was still well worth it. She covers so many different dye plants and methods. It's a fantastic book! My only quibbles are with the production--the type in this paperback is rather cramped, but I know it's expensive to produce full-color books these days. Also, I spent a great deal of time searching for the meaning of the little symbols next to the color samples--I could tell they were about preparation/mordants, but for the life of me, I must have searched for a light year to find the key--which is located in the narrative section at the beginning of the book (p 21, in the introduction, which sounds like an obvious place but I found it very hard to locate!).

United States on Jun 23, 2021

VW: If you've ever wanted to try eco-dying but didn't know where to start, this is a great resource. The book has clear explanations (and photos) of the use of mordants; how to prep the material to be dyed; an indication of the color you will get given the mordant used; and the dying techniques that can be used for each material/dye medium. It is the most comprehensive resource I have seen.

Canada on Oct 23, 2020

Tegan Hughes: I've just started my journey into natural dye methods and supplies and this book has been such a useful resource. The author clearly describes what can be used, how and why it works to dye. The information about dyestuff cultivation and gardening is also really informative. All in all, this is a wonderful resource for natural dyers and I'm very glad that I bought it.

Canada on Aug 05, 2020

LauraG: Wild Color is the best book for learning and using basic recipes for preparing various materials for dye. The book covers quite a few types of plant materials (leaves, roots, stems) and the expected colors you may achieve if you process the materials alone, and new shades with various mordants. Dean lays out the book with an easy to read key with color examples. You will lean the basic recipes at the start, and the dye pages are organized by the plant. It includes shades you can achieve based on the part of the plant, and where applicable, the season you collect the material. The pages for each plant also discuss cultivation, where the plant can be grown, how to harvest and process along with the handy color guide for what your dye will yield depending on your preparation on the dye material. A must have book. Hang on to it and don't lend it out because you'll never get it back. :-)

United States on Jan 12, 2020

F. Baker: It's okay. But it concentrates almost totally on dyeing fibers aka wool, silk, cotton and linen.
If you want like me to dye paper, you could be forgiven for thinking you're out of luck.
However, there is a good deal of information in this book. Including ph testing of your water, and the subsequent altering of that ph, to obtain the colours you want, plus mordanting and dye modifiers. It even mentions lichen dyeing, which is an entire other discipline and very complex. So it might be possible to extract information from this book to help paper dyers (or book boilers) too.
So for me the total absence of information of dyeing paper, means this book is NOT 'complete'. Interesting though, with some history included.

United Kingdom on Jan 24, 2019

Autumn M: This is a very informative book on using natural dyes. It's set out logically and clearly, and has both useful and lovely photographs.

It fell short for me because my intention is to use all natural products when dyeing cloth. To be fair, the title does say 'using natural dyes', rather than '100% natural dying'. Also, the author certainly does cover using natural mordants and gives enough information to get started.

Using natural dyes but also other chemicals is still a better ecological choice than using chemical dyes. I have no problem with those choosing this method. I just really wanted, and thought it was, a book on all natural dying - from start to finish. If a book focuses on that, it has the room to add much more detail and advice. This one shares it's space with chemicals, so much of it was of no use, and I was left with many questions.

The second section is devoted to specific plants and the colours we can achieve. Nicely set out and very clear. For me, I would have preferred less on cultivation (I have enough gardening books) and more on the dyeing procedure. Still, a really handy reference.

Lovely book, 4 stars, I do recommend it, just be...

United Kingdom on May 06, 2014