Dyes and Dying

There are a number of items in Minecraft that can be dyed different colours: wool, sheep, armour, and dog collars. In addiction, dyes are what gives colour to fireworks.

Dye Recipes

Primary colours

These are the dyes that have only one ingredient.

Red dye Rose Red Made from red flowers (roses, poppies and red tulips), or alternatively from beetroot.
yellow Dye Dandelion Yellow Made from yellow flowers (dandelions and sunflowers).
Blue Dye Lapis Lazuli You find this deep underground.
green dye

Cactus Green

 Bake cactus in a furnace.
Black Dye

Ink Sac

 Kill squid to collect this.
white dye Bone Meal Made from the bones of skeletons.
brown dye Cocoa Beans Grow on jungle trees, or found in chests in dungeons.

Mixed Colours

These are made by combining dyes.

orange dye Orange Dye Red dyeplusyellow Dye
cyan dye Cyan Dye Blue Dyeplusgreen dye
purple dye Purple Dye Red dyeplusBlue Dye
gray dye Gray Dye Black Dyepluswhite dye
light blue dye

Light Blue Dye

 Blue Dyepluswhite dye
pink dye Pink Dye Red dyepluswhite dye
lime green dye Lime Green Dye green dyepluswhite dye
magenta dye Magenta Dye purple dyepluspink dye
light gray Light Grey Dye gray dyepluswhite dye

Note that Magenta and Light Gray dyes are themselves made from secondary dyes: you can just add the basic ingredients if you want. For instance, ink plus two pieces of bonemeal will make light gray dye, and bone meal plus lapis lazuli plus two pieces of rose red will make magenta.

Flower Dyes

Some of the mixed dyes can also be obtained from flowers.

Blue Orchid

Blue Orchids can be crafted into Light Blue Dye.

Alium

Allium flowers can be crafted into Magenta Dye.

Lilac

Lilac flowers can be crafted into Magenta Dye.

Azure_bluet

Azure Bluets can be crafted into Light Grey Dye.

White Tulip

White Tulips can be crafted into Light Grey Dye.

Oxeye Daisy

Oxeye Daisies can be crafted into Light Grey Dye.

Orange Tulip

Orange Tulips can be crafted into Orange Dye.

Pink Tulip

Pink Tulips can be crafted into Pink Dye.

Peony

Peony flowers can be crafted into Pink Dye.

 

Uses for Dye

Dyed wool

Wool plus dye makes dyed wool. It's that easy!

Dyed wool is mostly used for building giant statues of video game characters.

Dyed sheep

If you need a lot of dyed wool, it's better to dye the sheep first. When you shear them, it will grow back the colour you had dyed it. And if you breed dyed sheep, you get dyed babies. A note to people doing biology in school: this is not how genetics workd in the real world!

Just right click on a sheep with dye in hand, and they will be dyed that colour. use bonemeal to turn them back to white.

Dyed Armour

Leather armour can be dyed on a crafting table. You are not restricted to just the colours described above: stick as many colours as you want in and they will be mixed together. You can add more colours to dyed armour too.

Dyed Armour can be washed clean in a Cauldron.

Dyed Wolves

Not really, but if you have tamed wolves, you can dye their collars by right clicking on them with dye in hand.