How to Dye a Bone Bracelet

Turn acorns into a natural dye for bone jewelry.

Bone is a beautiful natural material in its own right, but not everyone wants white or ivory colored jewelry. To create a black or dark gray dye based on ancient methods, you need to use only a few basic materials. Create a simple tannic acid, and then use iron salts to give bone, or any natural material, a black tone. Using primitive dyes suits the nature of bone jewelry, as bone accessories have been used as ornaments by human beings since the earliest people first appeared on earth.

Things You'll Need

• 15 large acorns
• 1 cup lemon juice or vinegar
• 2 tbsp. iron rust or 1 steel wool cleaning pad
• Mortar and pestle or electric blender
• Spoon
• 2 glass bowls
• Rubber gloves
• Soapy water

Instructions

1. Grind your acorns into a powder by pounding them with a mortar and pestle or grinding them in an electric blender. Put on rubber gloves. Transfer the ground acorns into a glass bowl and add a cup of water. Mix to create a thick liquid, which is your tannic acid, and immerse the bracelet in it. Leave it overnight to soak in the liquid.

2. Scrape iron rust from scrap metal, and grind it with a mortar and pestle until you have two tbsp. of rust powder. Add the powder to a glass bowl containing 1 cup of vinegar or lemon juice, and stir. Alternatively add a steel-wool pad (scourer) to the vinegar or lemon juice. This is your iron solution.

3. Put on rubber gloves, and remove the bracelet from the tannic acid solution. Allow excess liquid to drip off into the bowl, and transfer the bracelet to your iron solution. Leave it to soak overnight.

4. Remove the bracelet from the iron solution, and leave it in a warm dry place to dry. Wash it with soapy water to remove excess material and the vinegar odor, and leave it to dry again. Your beautiful, newly black bracelet is now ready to wear.

References

• Primitive Ways: Black Dye