Important: Safety Warning
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Another (Boil elderberries)
Boil elderberries or dwarf-elder, then smear and wash the skins therewith and wring them out; then boil the elderberries as before in a solution of alum-water, and wet the skins in the same manner once or twice; dry them, and they will be very blue.
Red.
Red is given by washing the skins and laying them 2 hours in galls, then wringing them out, dipping them in a liquor made with ligustrum, alum and verdigris; in water, and lastly in a dye made of Brazil-wood boiled with lye.
Purple.
Purple is given by wetting the skins with a solution of roche alum in warm water, and when dry, again rubbing them with the hand, with a decoction of log-wood in cold water.
Green.
Green is given by smearing the skin with sapgreen and alum-water boiled. Dark Green.
Dark green is given with steel-filings and sal ammoniac, steeped in urine till soft, then smeared over the skin, which is to be dried in the shade.
Yellow.
Yellow is given by smearing the skin over with aloes and linseed-oil, dissolved and strained, or by infusing it in weld.
Light Orange.
Orange color is given by smearing it with fustic berries boiled in alum-water, or, for a deep orange, with turmeric.
Sky-color.
Sky-color is given with indigo steeped in boiling water, and the next morning warmed and smeared over the skin.