Years ago a friend had been spending a lot of time in Nicaragua and he told me
that they get black dye from the avocado skins there. He knows I am a fiber artist and natural dyer and thought I might have heard of it. While I had not, I did embark on my own experimental journey to obtain this elusive black dye...
I haven't learned how to do so yet but what I have gotten is one of the most beautiful shades of gray/blue I've ever seen. My dye results have even ranged into peach and pink, depending on what pots and metals I used.
I started out by saving about one gallon of avocado skins. I soaked them in water for about one month, outdoors, in the winter. So the water would freeze and thaw, freeze and thaw. I think this really helped break the skins down and release the darker color from them.
Then, I used a mesh strainer to scoop out any avocado fruit that had been left on the skins and was now floating in the water.
I then simmered the pot with some pieces of old rusty metal. I simmered it for about one hour.
I then let the liquid cool, and poured all of it through an old pillow case to strain out all of the debris and fruit.
Then, back in the dye pot went the liquid and the old rusty pieces of metal.
In went the pre-soaked wool fiber (yarn)
Simmered again for an hour or two, let it soak over night, and the results were stunning.
To get the pinker shades I omitted the rusty metal and included some chopped avocado pits with the skins.
Avocado has since become one of my favorite natural dyes... Now if I can just figure out how the Nicaraguans get black though...
