How to Dye with Saffron Petals at Home?

SAFFRON is not only an expensive tasty spice, but also it is a drawing and fabric colorant. You can use saffron petals to give a natural, beautiful, shiny yellow color to your drawings and fabrics. In this article, we have provided you with a thorough step-by-step process of coloring drawings and fabrics with saffron.

The Instruction of Dyeing Fabrics with Saffron

If you want to use beautiful saffron petals to dye your fabrics, you need to follow the following process step by step:

The Requirements
  • A white cloth (preferably non-bleached)
  • Sea salt without iodine
  • Saffron petals
  • White vinegar
  • Two large pots
  • A non-wooden spoon
  • Water
  • A strainer

The Process of Dyeing with Saffron

The Preparation of Fabric
  1. Provide a white fabric.
  2. In a large pot, add some sea salt without iodine into the water, which is enough to cover the whole fabric. Salt is useful for color absorption with the fabric.
  3. Boil the water and salt at a low-temperature heat until the salt is completely dissolved.
  4. Remove the pot from the heat and put the fabric in it. Put the lid on the pot and let the fabric soak for 30 minutes.
The Preparation of Saffron Petals
  1. In the second pot, add saffron petals into the water, which is enough to soak the cloth, at a low-temperature heat. Add two teaspoons of saffron and gradually add more saffron until the water color turns bright yellow.
  2. Stir the mixture constantly with a non-wooden spoon to receive more color from the saffron petals.
  3. Add a teaspoon of white vinegar per two cups of water.
  4. Keep stirring to the extent that you can receive no more saffron color.
  5. Pour the mixture through a strainer to separate the saffron petals.
  6. After filtration, re-pour the liquid into the pot which is on medium-temperature heat.
Dyeing the Fabric
  1. Put the soaked cloth into a pot of water-saffron liquid.
  2. Make sure that the whole parts of the fabric are completely covered so that you can see the even saffron color.
  3. Keep the fabric in the pot for an hour and turn it over every 10 minutes.
Removing Excessive dye from the Fabric
  1. After an hour, take the fabric out of the pot and drain it.
  2. Wash the fabric with cold water and constantly squeeze it to remove any excessive dye, and don't stop doing it until there is no excessive color.
  3. Now, hang the cloth to dry it out, preferably out of direct sunlight, as sunlight causes the color to fade away.

The Important Tips for Saffron Color Maintenance On the Fabric

  • Saffron, like other natural colors derived from nutrients, is an unstable colorant; thus, the color is not permanent. The fabric dyed with saffron loses color gradually even after the color stabilization process if it gets exposed to extreme light or washing. It is probably required to re-dye the fabric once a year (depending on the washing cycles) to maintain the color.
  • Make sure that the color rinses off the cloth completely; otherwise, the color is likely to stain other surfaces, especially your skin.

The Instruction of Painting Drawings with Saffron

How to Dye with Saffron Petals at Home?

Saffron, this Iranian red gold, plays an incredible role in the painting world, along with its other numerous properties and its fantastic flavor. The bright warm color of saffron petals can make your paintings lively. In the following, we will teach you how you can use saffron petals to beautifully paint your drawings.

The Requirements
  • Mustafavi saffron petals
  • Mortar and pestle
  • A brush
  • Water
  • The drawing (pencil or watercolor)

The Process of Dyeing with Saffron

The Preparation of Saffron Color
  1. Pour some saffron petals into a mortar and crush them with a pistol to turn them into powder.
  2. Add a little water to the saffron powder and mix them together.
Coloring
  1. Take your brush into the mixture; then, start coloring your drawing.
  2. Depending on your interest, you can use a wide variety of brushes with different sizes.
  3. You can add some water to the mixture to obtain brighter pigments.
  4. For darker pigments, thicken the mixture with saffron.
  5. Now, wait until the saffron color gets completely dry.

In Conclusion

We hope that you will easily apply the beautiful color of saffron as a colorant and demonstrate your creativity. Keep in mind that creativity is limitless; therefore, use saffron and its wonderful colors to create your own unique pieces of art and enjoy their beauty.