Walnut Husks

The English walnut originated in Persia, so it is not, strictly speaking, a native tree, though its delicious nuts are always associated in my mind with Christmas celebrations. The parts of the tree from which dyestuff can be obtained are the husk, that is the outer green pericarp layer that protects the whole fruit, and the leaves. Walnut husks contain polyphenols that stain human skin and hair brown, so that walnut stain was used as a plot device by modern crime writer, Ben Johnson, in his book 'Charlie Peace: murder, mayhem and the master of disguise', to radically change his hero’s appearance and ethnicity. The husks are also used to make an ink for writing or drawing, and to make a brown fabric dye.  I am lucky in that our son-in-law’s parents have a mature walnut tree in their garden, so that I have access to walnut leaves and husks. I steeped the husks in my slow cooker on a low setting for three days before straining them and using the liquor to make a dye bath. Jenny Dean says that there is no need to mordant walnuts when dyeing, but I chose to be consistent in applying my four skein method. From the left, the skeins were mordanted with alum, copper, alum plus tin and alum plus iron. It will be interesting to see what colours I obtain from the leaves later on in the spring!