Soda ash

Soda Ash (washing soda or sodium carbonate) is one of the most popular alkalines for natural dyeing. You can use it as an additive to your regular natural dyes to bring out those vibrant yellows or to get even brighter reds. Also, it can be used as an alkaline base for indigo or as an alkaline for various cold fermentation color extractions (rhubarb root, madder root, buckthorn bark, birch bark, weld, and others). Soda ash is a great scouring agent for cellulose and it’s very helpful while cleaning natural dyeing utensils.

Name: sodium carbonate

Other names: soda ash, washing soda

Formula: Na2CO3

Form: white powder

Safety: safe to use but do not ingest. Additionally, you can wear protective gloves and a face mask while handling the powder

Purpose: alkaline pH modifier for natural dyeing, cleaning, and scrubbing agent for natural dyeing tools and surfaces, scouring agent for cellulose. Additionally, can be used as an alkaline in some indigo recipes.

Additional information:

• Experiment during the dyeing process - try adding a pinch of soda ash to various dyes to get different shades

  
  

• Experiment with various cold alkaline extraction methods. Add soda ash to water (pH10), add natural dyes, and wait for several days or longer. Keep in mind that fermentation makes liquid bubble so it would be a good idea to leave some room in the bucket for that. Also, after a day or two, when fermentation starts, the liquid will become more acidic so you will need to add extra soda ash to maintain pH10. You can use this method for madder root (red), rhubarb root (red, auburn), weld (lemon yellow), buckthorn bark (red, terracotta), birch bark (orange) and many other plants.

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to scour cellulose fibers with soda ash.