Here I share with you, The 5 best book you must have if you want to learn about natural dyes, the list includes books for beginners, professionals and a masterpiece.
When you are new to the world of natural dye, is normal to find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of contradictory and messy information about natural dyes that you read online; my goal with casacaribe is to offer straightforward information in one place, to make it more pleasant to everyone to learn about natural colours.
I was very frustrated when I started to learn about natural dyes, everyone was talking about mordanting, tannins, fast-light and others, but no one explained what that means; One thing that helped me remarkably is...books!
So here I'm going to share with you, what I think, are the 5 best books about natural dye.
In the beginning, I was hesitant about sharing this information with all of you, because these books are like my treasure, they are where I grasp very valuable information that allows me to have the knowledge I share here, but then, I realise I was been egoistic, sharing this list of books will make the learning easy for others, that is, essentially, the main core of CasaCaribe.
So let dive into the 5 best books about natural dye, starting from books for beginners finishing with a masterpiece and a gift from CasaCaribe!
This is a great book for beginners, Rebecca Desnos explains with simple text and beautiful images how to dye using different dyestuff, she has a distinctive point of view about this art, she wants to promote a specific way of dyeing with natural colours, for example, she doesn't use proteinic fabric as a personal choice, and she also doesn't use any mordanting agent, she explains the soy milk binder method and her whole practice is based on that; so is not the best if you want to learn about mordants and how to dye on wool.
Knowing that I still recommend this book, Rebecca inspires you to try an experiment, an important part of the journey of learning about natural dyes.
The handbook of natural plant dyes, Sasha Duerr ( I have the Italian version)
This was my first book about natural dyes, it was the one that opened my mind about the used of plants to give colour to textiles.
The book is project-oriented, from how to dye a picnic blanket with turmeric to how to make your natural dye garden.
Sasha gives you different recipes to follow with a lot of pictures, but overall, the book lacks a deep immersion in topics like mordanting and colour fastness. It is still a great book to start.
This is the book that allowed me to stop feeling like a newcomer.
In wild colour, you will find the history of natural dyes, the equipment you will need, a list of different plants that you can use to obtain colour with colour swatches and much more.
In conclusion, the only thing I don't like about this book is not having found it before hehe.
Five stars out of five ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
So, now you know about the most common dyestuffs, you know one or two ways to mordant, and you are obtaining great results, still, you want more, you have a voracious appetite for natural dyes; this is the book for you.
The art and science of natural dyes, explores, as the title says, the science part about with a plant is a dyeing material.
The book comes with spiral binding, which means that you can open a page with the recipe and follow it without complications.
I recommend this book for those how to want to create a fashion label or a natural dye company, but if you want to keep it as a sporadic hobby, don't overwhelm yourself with all of this information.
The final book on my recommendation list, a masterpiece!
This book is 500+ pages of precious information, is the result of an extensive research about natural dyes that covers the chemistry, folklore, history, and botany of this ancient technique.
Dominique Cardon, is the Director of Research, in the CNRS Laboratory of History and Archeology, Lyons, France. She understands the importance of preserving the art of natural dyes in a world where nature is undertreated and Millenial knowledge is been lost every day.
I don't own a copy of this book, but I sneak to the library every time I can, to read it;
It's a goal of mine to buy a copy of this book.
And now for the gift, I promise at the beginning!!
a free copy of my e-book "natural dyes for beginners"
to get a free copy all you need to do is subscribe to my newsletter click here.
You will receive an email with a copy of my ebook.
So, there you have it, the 5 best book about natural dye, in my opinion; if you have a book that you think should be on this list let me know at casacaribenatural@gmail.com
with love,
❤ Laura Estrada M.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links, this helps me to continue creating inspiring and free content for CasaCaribe. The final price of the object is not going to be affected, you are paying the regular price but Amazon will give me a small percentage of the sale.