Dyeing with onion skins

As part of a Naturally Dyed Wool Community led by Jean Haley, each month we try new things together. We meet twice a month to talk about our findings, share ideas, and discuss all things related to natural dyes for fiber arts. This summer I was particularly excited to try dyeing with onion skins, to see what range of colors we might achieve with this simple, abundant dye source that most people would have access to.

I focused on the yellow variety because of the lightfast properties of the yellow dye compounds in them. I am not much of a cook — if I have time in the kitchen, it is just for natural dyes! But Linda does cook, and she brought over her saved skins. I also made several trips to different grocery stores to ask if I could “clean” their onion bins. All were happy to oblige! And, one of our wool community members who is a chef also shared some of her stash (fiber friends are the best!). We were finally ready to start.

I chose combed top so that I could start with two different colors of base fiber (the creamy merino/bamboo/silk blend and the gray merino/yak/silk blend — they also happen to be two of my favorite blends to spin). I also varied the premordant used to bind the dye compounds to the protein fibers — alum which does not change the base color, and copper, which gives a green/blue hue. I measured 100% weight of fiber (WoF) and cooked them for one hour. The liquid was strained, removing the skins, and I simmered the fibers for one hour and let them cool in the dyebath. The kitchen smelled delightful!

Onion bath

There was so much color left in the dyebath, I put in another set of fibers that had been prepared the same way.

The results were a beautiful surprise to me. The dye bath was more orange than anticipated, so the alum fiber came out a rich gold. And with the green/blue of the copper, those fibers resulted in coppery brown tones rather than greens I thought we might see.  The exhaust bath made beautiful taupes, too.

I loved these rich colors and could not wait to spin them into little miniskeins!

Yellow onion skins result in beautiful, rich colors, and I was particularly delighted (and surprised) to see the taupes from the exhaust baths. The only potential drawback is the amount of onion needed if one wants to dye large amounts of fiber in these 100% WoF colors. We would need to partner with a local restaurant to continue producing these for the shop. (Restauranteurs, let us know if you are interested in donating your onion skins!)

In the meantime, we are working with other dye materials — like our marigolds, to produce similar colors.