---
title: Dye-ing for More Natural Colors
date: 2024-04-11T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/dye-ing-for-more-natural-colors"
section: Articles
---
# Dye-ing for More Natural Colors

*April 11, 2024* — by [Annie Krakower](/author/annie-krakower)


> Plant Sciences Class Combines Chemistry, Art and History as Students Create Plant-, Insect-Based Dyes

*PLSC434 The Questfor Color 03012024 SC 4331 1920x1080 — Mia Manning ’25, left, and Kennedy Thomas ’24 add swatches to their logwood dye bath in “The Quest for Color” class, which combines chemistry, art and history as students learn about sustainable color creation.*

Students stir liquid simmering in five pots in a small lab tucked away in the Plant Sciences Building, with dozens of white fabric swatches swimming inside gradually taking on color. Some become a muted yellow, others a rich purple, and some assume an almost denim-like hue that turns greener by the minute. But this rainbow of results stems from just one reddish-brown source: logwood trees.


*Maile Neel teaches — Plant science and landscape architecture Professor Maile Neel lectures about the day’s “dyestuff.”*


*two pots of dye — Calcium carbonate in the pot at left made the logwood solution purple, while cream of tartar turned it yellow.*


*nine pink-ish swatches in dye journal — Students create “dye journals” to document how different dye bath conditions change the resulting shades.*




**Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)


**Tags:** [Plant Science and Landscape Architecture](https://today.umd.edu/topic/plant-science-and-landscape-architecture), [Student Experience](https://today.umd.edu/topic/student-experience)


**Units:** [College of Agriculture and Natural Resources](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-agriculture-and-natural-resources)