My fiber guild had an earth mineral "dyeing" workshop.While I knew that "mud" was used to "dye" cloth in Africa, until a talented artist joined the Guild. had no idea that this was a "thing." Sheryl guided us through the steps, including making our own mordant from soy beans (basically making your own soy milk!).
A brief review: a "dye" is soluble, i.e., it dissolves in water. "Pigments" are insoluble...they can be "suspended" in a medium, in this case soy milk. They need to be stirred before being applied to the fiber for even application, with each dip of the brush.
Here is Sheryl's website; she is a thoughtful and multitalented person. The fiber community is lucky to have her wisdom! : https://sherylstgermain.com/
After making our soymilk and wetting down our pre scoured linen, the earth mineral powders were mixed with more soymilk, and painted on the fabric. I'm not sure whether these pigments all came out of the ground, some I think were treated to make some of the less earthy colors...the "middle" stripe here was actually from Georgia clay that Sheryl had ground up.
Here is a link to the source for Sheryl's earth pigments. They have a multitude of uses, not just on fiber...https://www.earthpigments.com/
