natural dyes

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

Anyone have any tips on naturally dying woods? I got a good bunch of balsa wood to make toys with and i want to make things a tad more colorful, any tips? I know beat juice and turmeric can be good colorants but what else? I need all the colors of the rainbow!

ChristaNL · Dec 28, 2018

blackberries+ brambles - just check the deepfreeze section- for reddish darker purple than the beetroot will give you.
Onion-peels will give you yellow - but you have to boil it wrapped around the wood (that how you do it with eastereggs anyway - gives fun patterns), people say turmeric (yellowroot) will stain as well, but never tried it.
Anyway red berries from the human foodsection for reddish shades.

(of just buy foodcolouring: same stuff, less work, intense colours)

Flboy · Dec 28, 2018

Yes, food coloring! Use it in rubbing alcohol. Wear gloves!
http://www.parrotforums.com/do-yourself/40852-how-make-your-own-wood-dyes-tutorial.html

OutlawedSpirit · Dec 28, 2018

I have found that if you're going to use food coloring, getting the Wilton icing dyes are the best. They are a gel as opposed to a liquid but they have given me nice, intense colors with just mixing them with hot water then soaking the wood. I do suggest using softer woods like balsa or pine because they tend to soak in the color better than hardwoods.

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EllenD · Dec 28, 2018

Agreed, there are a ton of places online that you can order all-natural/vegetable based dyes that are 100% safe and that look great, especially on a very porous wood such as Balsa. The "icing dyes" as stated above work extremely well, they tend to come-out very vibrant and bright...But if you want a large palette of colors, you'll probably need to order them online, as you can find every color of the rainbow and then some online, even "neon" colors and such.

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

pretty happy with the results, will make a thread about all my findings soon x.x so many pictures though

ChristaNL · Dec 28, 2018

Actually..I am a bit sick of the dyes...

I got a few donated macaw-toys and cleaning them was a nightmare..they got clean very easy (the former owner was a thouroughly tested bird, so no isues there) but the colours kept bleeding out and dripping all over the place from just getting wet!

The same with the naturally coloured (parrotfriendly) ropes they sell: lovely to look at untill they get wet ..

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

Apollo really likes them so I'm trying it out. And I love things that are pleasing to look at xD

Terry57 · Dec 28, 2018

Owlet said:
pretty happy with the results, will make a thread about all my findings soon x.x so many pictures though

Those colours turned out so vibrant! What did you end up using?

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

Terry57 said:
Owlet said:

pretty happy with the results, will make a thread about all my findings soon x.x so many pictures though

Click to expand...

Those colours turned out so vibrant! What did you end up using?

I ended up using a couple different kinds of food coloring, I'll post the exacts with images and stuff next time I can get on the computer. The ended up drying to be a bit lighter but still good

Terry57 · Dec 28, 2018

I use regular food colouring as well and have had good results with it. I am obsessed with the neons, especially pink. I use Wilton for my reds, can't seem to get them bright enough otherwise. Looking forward to those pictures!

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

Everything except for the standard blue, green, yellow, and red were wilton. (Spanish names included) Only problem I found with the gel food coloring is when you put it in the alcohol it leaves behind a weird film. Not a huge problem because you can just remove the film but still weird. The othe other ones were just standard water based food coloring.

Terry57 · Dec 28, 2018

We can get the neons in regular food colouring here, and I find them so much easier to work with. For the Wilton I heated a tiny bit of water and whisked it into it then added the alcohol and that seemed to help.

Owlet · Dec 28, 2018

I honestly had such a hard time finding food coloring to begin with. I went to 3 different stores before I found any that worked for what I needed. I found some gel ones in a baking section of a craft store but they were all pastels and were like 4$ a color, no way!

natural dyes

Owlet

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EllenD

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Enclosed food bowl..

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