Plant-Based Natural Dye Mordants

Natural Dye mordants use tannins to bind color to fabric. Making your own mordants for natural dyes useful for successful dyeing.

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by AdobeStock/Clyde

Natural Dye mordants use tannins to bind color to fabric. Making your own mordants for natural dyes useful for successful dyeing.

Plant-Based Mordants

Certain plant materials contain high concentrations of tannic acid, or tannin, which works well as a mordant to bond color to plant-based fiber. Tannin as a mordant, especially in combination with alum, can provide a greater color range with more successful results on most vegetable fibers. Certain tannin-bearing plant materials work especially well as mordants, such as horse chestnuts, pine bark, certain roots, some leaves, acorns, oak galls, pomegranate rind, and some fruits. Among the plant-based mordants, oak galls contain the highest amount of tannic acid. Some tannin substances will bind to the fiber and stay clear, allowing the true color of the dye source to saturate the fiber. But some tannins can alter the color by making it dull, especially if the dyes are yellow, pink, or brown tones.

Acorns, oak galls, pomegranate rind, and certain leaves and bark are just a few excellent sources of plant-based mordants that will brighten your dye color. You can collect acorns and oak galls on the ground under oak trees when they are in season, and store them for later use. You can also buy oak galls from some specialty herb stores.


  • Updated on Apr 4, 2023
  • Originally Published on Dec 30, 2013
Tagged with: mordants, natural dye
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