There was one small juniper tree that had come to the end of its journey growing at our yard. I was interested to try what kind of colour I could get from its bark. Stripping the trunks was surprisingly easy. All I really needed to do was to pull the bark out with my bare hands. I let the bark soak in water for one day before boiling it for one hour. Rest of the process was similar to dyeing with lupine (read about it here.) Boiling juniper bark smells really good! I’m serious, if somebody develops a juniper scented perfume I’m the first one to buy it! The colour was pretty too.
I think this brown colour is really pretty. All the yarns I used are wool yarns and were mordanted beforehand with alum.
I reused the dye for the second time but added madder powder into it . This gave the yarn it’s redness.
The Easy Blues 
Apparently, juniper needles will yield a natural mordant. Interested? Here’s the website: http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/fieldbio/Survival/Pages/dyeandmordant.html
Interesting I didn’t even think of using the needles. Have to keep that in mind.
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