Alnus Glutinosa - Tanning and Dyeing

Tanning and Dyeing

The bark as well as the young shoots of the alder provides a yellow dye and if you add a tad of copper to it, they provide a yellowish-gray dye. This yellowish-gray dye is useful in half-tones and silhouettes of flesh in tapestry. If the shoots of the alder are cut in March, they will provide a cinnamon colored dye, but when they are dehydrated and powdered, they provide a yellowish-brown or orange shade. On the other hand, freshly cut wood of the alder provides a pinkish-brown or pinkish-fawn coloring, while the catkins provide a green dye. Even the leaves of the alder are used for tanning leather. The dye prepared from the alder leaves is slimy and it is said that if this dye is put out in a room, it will catch fleas on its viscous exterior.

The bark of the alder is combined with copperas (ferrous sulfate) and applied as a foundation for black dyes. When used alone, the bark of the tree dyes woolen clothes giving them a reddish hue called ‘Aldine Red’. The natives of Lapland called Lapps chew the bark of the alder and use the saliva to pigment garments made with leather. You are able to dye a profound boue de Paris with a solution prepared with an ounce of dehydrated and powdered bark of the alder simmered in three-fourth of a pint of water along with an equal proportion of logwood and a solution of six grains of tin, copper and bismuth each and two drops of iron vitriol.

The bark also yields a type of ink as well as an orange-red colorant, while a green pigment is obtained from the catkins of the alder. The fresh green wood yields a pinkish-beige dye, while a yellowish pigment is obtained from the alder bark as well as young branches. However, if the alder shoots are harvested in the month of March, they yield a cinnamon pigment. And when the same shoots are dried and powdered, they provide a yellowish-brown colorant.