The Log Cabin Living: Artifacts from 19th Century Life exhibit at Job Carr Cabin Museum encourages visitors to take a closer look at more than 20 objects in the museum's collection.
People have long used plants for natural dyeing. Indigenous tribes have dyed clothing, paintings, and decorations for centuries, making life vibrant. Natural dyes can come from materials like flowers, berries, fungi, lichen, bark, and moss. People can create dye most of the year, since it can be processed from a variety of materials.
Plant dye sampler at the Job Carr Cabin Museum.
The dye sampler at the museum shows how various plants can be used to create different colors of yarn. It was anonymously donated to the Museum in August 2017. The display shows a variety of plants labeled in English and Diné Bazaad (the Navajo language), similar to a more extensive Navajo Dye Chart previously on exhibit at Bard Graduate Center. Dye charts were first used in the 1950s by Diné artists as a guide for weaving students and later produced for the tourist trade in the Southwest.
A close-up of the yarn colors in the plant dye sampler at the Job Carr Cabin Museum.
The picture frame in the cabin showcases natural sources that were harvested in the American Southwest to brighten wool yarn. Native peoples from across the continent used locally available materials to create colorful fibers and fabrics. The plant dye sampler at the museum includes three pigments commonly used by Indigenous people throughout North America: alder, dock root, and lichen.
The native plant garden at Job Carr Cabin Museum includes red currant, sword fern, and evergreen huckleberry. The garden was installed with assistance from students at Annie Wright Schools in 2023, with Lushootseed translation signage reviewed by the Puyallup Tribe.
Red Flowering Currant in the native plant garden at Job Carr Cabin Museum. In addition to their use as food and medicine, red currant berries can create a black dye while their leaves make a shade of yellow. Evergreen huckleberries may also have been used as a dye by Pacific Northwest tribes.
To dye fabric with flowers, use about twice the weight of the cloth in flowers. For the brightest colors, make the dye from fresh flowers. A brief cooking period is enough for fruits with soft skin, while for tougher fruits, crushing and soaking for a day before cooking is necessary. Similarly, tougher barks require several days of soaking.
Volunteers share a plant dyes craft using fresh flowers at the Job Carr Cabin Museum Tacoma Fiber Fling.
The color of the plant does not necessarily correlate to the same color for its dye. For example, red onion skin can yield a green pigment, while the oak and juniper result in shades of purple yarn. The dye colors also vary based on the freshness of the plants, the pH of water used in the dyeing process, and the type of fiber being dyed. Animal fibers like wool and silk absorb colors differently than plant fibers such as cotton and linen. Heat, salt, tannins, and minerals such as iron and aluminum are used to help the color bond to the fibers for longer lasting dyes. Plants with high levels of tannic acid, including sumac, walnut, and juniper, can create especially long lasting color.
A close-up of the juniper mistletoe in the Navajo dye chart at Job Carr Cabin Museum. Although a fresh sample of this plant is green and the dried plant is yellow, the yarn dyed with juniper mistletoe is a shade of purple.
Take a closer look at the Museum's plant dyes display in this short video:
Sources
Freed, Jim. “Natural Dyes from Native Plants.” WNPS, Washington Native Plant Society, 1 Oct. 2013, www.wnps.org/blog/natural-dyes-from-native-plants.
“Native Plant Dyes.” US Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/ethnobotany/dyes.shtml. Accessed 1 Dec. 2023.
About the Author
Gabby Quinnett graduated from the University of Washington in 2022 with a degree in history. She currently works at Iron Mountain on the IMES team as a historical imaging technician. She began volunteering with Job Carr Cabin Museum in 2023. She is grateful to the museum for allowing her continue to explore, learn, and educate within the historical community.
About the Editor
Madeline Teddy completed an internship with Job Carr Cabin Museum in Fall 2023. She was a graduate of University of British Columbia majoring in history and classical Near Eastern religious studies. She hoped to take her studies further and become a museum curator.