How to Make an Alum Mordant

Difficulty Level:

Time Required:

Here's How:

1. Use clean, scoured wool or yarn.
2. Fill a large pot with clean water and heat.
3. Weigh the yarn or clean, dry fleece.
4. Using 10% Alum (potassium aluminum sulfate) to weight of fibre, mix the Alum into the hot water.
5. Using 5% Tartaric Acid to weight of fibre, add the Tartaric acid to the hot water mixture.
6. Rinse the wool so that it is damp.
7. Add the wool or skeins of yarn into the hot Alum mixture.
8. Make sure that the wool is all covered by the water, if not, add more water to the pot.
9. Simmer the mordant mixture for x-about an hour at 90 degrees Celsius.
10. Remove the yarns from the Alum mixture.
11. The Alum mixture can be reused by adding 1/2 the amount of Alum and Tartaric Acid.
    

Tips:

1. If dyeing skeins of yarn, make sure that the skeins are tied securely, but loosely in at least 3 places, to avoid tangling.
2. The mordanted yarns can be dyed immediately, or dried and stored for later natural dyeing.
3. The alum/tartaric acid mixture is suitable for wools, silks and other protein fibres.