Safflower, Carthamus tinctorius, is a herb with toothed leaves and thistle-like orange or yellow flowers. It has strong central stems that are erect and highly branched. It is an annual plant in the sunflower family Asteraceae.
It is commercially cultivated for vegetable oil extracted from the seeds and was used by the early Spanish colonies along the Rio Grande as a substitute for saffron.
Safflower is a substantive dye that does not need a mordant on silk or cotton, and has been used by dyers for centuries. In Japan the colours are highly prized. The petals contain yellow and red pigments, depending on the Ph you are using while extracting it. It is not a very light or washfast color, but worth giving it a try for these wonderful that range between yellow, pink and coral.
Our safflower comes from the Anatolian regian where it is grown for the production of safflower oil, the petals are separated and sold as a dye stuff.
Use 100-200% WOF weights of safflower for the deepest shades. Use a dye bag for easier work flow.
Soak the flowers overnight in a bucket to extract the yellow dye. Squeeze, strain, and remove the flowers (set them aside for later). This first yellow extraction can be used hot or cold.
For pink extraction:
Add 10% of the weight of the petals of sodium carbonate (soda ash) to water in the dye pot. Ph should be 11.
Soak the same petals in the alkaline solution for two hours.
Squeeze, strain, and remove the flowers when you see the colour has turned pink.
Add white vinegar to the pink dye to make it slightly acidic (Ph 6) or your dye would be too alkaline to use on silk! This pink dye should be used cold.
The exhaust bath may give oranges and soft yellows on silk.
