Gardenia Extract

Shepherd Textiles Gardenia Extract natural dye is made from the seeds of gardenia jasminoides, the common flowering gardenia. Gardenia seeds have been used for thousands of years in China and Korea as a fabric dye, especially on silk. The seeds contain two yellow pigments, crocin and crocetin, which are coincidentally the same yellow pigments found in saffron stamens. They make it possible to reproduce the colors of saffron-dyed cloth at just a fraction of the price of true saffron.

Gardenia Extract contains highly concentrated crocin and crocetin extracted from gardenia seeds. The powder will dissolve easily in the dye bath and gives strong yellow shades at 10% weight-of-fabric. Increasing the concentration to 25% will produce an exceptional deep orange-yellow on silk mordanted with alum. Use without a mordant for more pale lemony shades. For more information and detailed color recipes, check out our Guide to Dyeing with Gardenia Extract.

Product of South Korea.