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How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color

Mar 29, 2012 09:38 PM

Are you exhausted from farming constant dyes to create colored wool? Are you looking for a quicker method to gathering colored wool, but don't know where to start? Are you still learning how to farm colored wool or how to make certain wool colors? This quick tutorial will go over how to find and create every possible colored dye in the game. 

Types of Dyes

There are three "categories" of dyes in Minecraft.

The first type of dyes are called the "primary colors." Primary colors are single ingredients that spawn naturally in a world, so virtually no crafting is involved.

Instructions for collecting natural resources to make dye in a game. Items listed include bone meal, cacti, roses, yellow flowers, cocoa beans, lapis lazuli, and ink sacks.

Secondly, we have "secondary colors." Secondary colors can only be created by combining primary colored dyes together.

Lastly, we have "tertiary colors." Tertiary colors are created by combining at least one secondary dye color.

Quickest Way to Farm Wool

The quickest and most efficient way to farm colored wool is with a sheep farm. Of course, you can mix dyes with white wool in a crafting bench to create colored wool, but you go through resources incredibly quick. When you dye a sheep a certain color, then shear the sheep, you will receive between 1-3 pieces of wool. If you were to mix dye with white wool in a crafting bench, you would only receive 1 piece of the colored wool.

To keep a surplus of colored wool, you can breed the sheep. Make sure that you have grass for the sheep to eat or else their wool will not grow back. When you breed two sheep, it will produce a baby sheep of the same color as one of the parents. Keep in mind, the color is more likely to be that of the parent that was fed wheat first. No mixes of colors will occur; the baby will always be the same color as one of the parents.

Sheep

Natural spawning sheep aren't always white. They can spawn as white, light gray, dark gray, black, brown and even pink!

Five sheep of various colors gathered in a pen.

Primary Colors

Includes rose red, dandelion yellow, lapis lazuli (blue), cactus green, ink sac (black), bone meal (white) and cocoa beans (brown).

Black Dye (Ink Sac)

Go on an adventure looking for squid. Don't forget your sword, which you'll be needing to kill the squids. 

Squids in a pool of water in a game environment

When you kill squid, they will drop 1-3 ink sacs that you can use to dye wool and sheep with. With ink sacs, you can also make gray dye, but we'll go over that shortly!

Blue Dye (Lapis Lazuli)

To create blue dye, you will need lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli is found deep underground. Lapis lazuli cannot be mined with a wooden pickaxe, so be sure to bring a stone pickaxe or better! The best levels to find lapis are between Y coordinates 13 and 16, but any level below 31 will do! 

Lapis Lazuli ore veins in a stone wall, with blue dye reference.

When you mine one single lapis lazuli ore, it can drop anywhere from 4-8 lapis lazuli. This is great because of how rare it is. You will only need a few lapis lazuli to start your colored wool farm, though!

Diamond ore being mined with a pickaxe in a blocky environment.

Brown Dye (Cocoa Beans)

To create brown wool, it can be quite difficult. Cocoa beans are only found in dungeon chests, and they only have a 53% chance of being found in the chests. If you do get lucky and find some cocoa beans in a dungeon chest, there will be between 1-3 inside the chest. This is plenty to get started!

"Instructions for finding cocoa beans in dungeon chests in a game."

Luckily, brown sheep do spawn naturally in the Minecraft world, so this makes things a little easier.

Green Dye (Cactus Green)

Wander through a desert and collect some cacti. You won't need many, but the more you have, the easier it will be to boost your colored wool farm along! If you have a few cacti to start off with, you could consider creating a mini cacti farm to gather more. If you're not sure how to start off making a cacti farm, check out this tutorial!

Cacti in a desert landscape from a video game.

To convert cacti into cactus green (dye), you will need to place it in a furnace and cook it. 

Instructions for cooking cactus in a furnace in a video game.
How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color
Instructions for cooking cactus in a furnace in a video game.
How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color

White Dye (Bone Meal)

To create bone meal, all you need are bones! Bones drop from skeletons, and skeletons can drop between 0-2 bones at a time.

"Instructions for collecting bone meal from skeletons in a game environment."
Minecraft dungeon scene with mossy cobblestone, a bone, and a torch.
"Instructions for collecting bone meal from skeletons in a game environment."
Minecraft dungeon scene with mossy cobblestone, a bone, and a torch.

To create bone meal, place it in a crafting table. 1 bone will create 3 bone meal!

Alternative text: "Minecraft crafting guide showing how to convert bones into bone meal."

Bone meal can also be used for farming red and yellow dye.

Red and Yellow Dye (Rose and Dandelion)

Yellow flowers will create yellow dye, and roses will create red dye. You can find flowers in tall grass areas. Just break some flowers and you will be able to create red and yellow dye!

Flower garden layout in a video game with yellow flowers and roses arranged in a fenced area.

You can also use bone meal to create tall grass. Tall grass has a chance to spawn flowers, so this is handy if you don't feel like wandering the world to find flowers.

How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color
How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color
How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color
How to Build a Wool-Dye Workshop to Create Wool of Any Color

"Instructions for crafting red dye using a rose in a crafting table"

Crafting recipe for yellow dye using yellow flowers in a game.

Secondary Colors

Includes orange (red + yellow), cyan (green + blue), purple (red + blue), gray (black + white), light blue (blue + white), pink (red + white), and lime (green + white). All you have to do is mix the appropriate colors together to get your wanted secondary color dye.

Orange Dye

Crafting recipe for orange dye using yellow and red dye in a game.

Cyan Dye

Crafting recipe for cyan dye using cactus green and lapis lazuli.

Purple Dye

Crafting recipe for purple dye using lapis lazuli and red dye in a game.

Gray Dye

Crafting recipe for gray dye using bone meal and ink sacks.

Light Blue Dye

Crafting recipe for light blue dye using lapis lazuli and bone meal in a game interface.

Pink Dye

Crafting recipe for pink dye using red dye and bone meal in a game.

Lime Dye

Crafting recipe for lime dye using cactus green and bone meal.

Tertiary Colors

Includes magenta (purple + pink) and light gray (gray + white) dyes. Again, pretty simple.

Light Gray Dye

Crafting recipe for light gray dye using gray dye and bone meal.

Magenta Dye

Crafting instructions for creating magenta dye using pink and purple dyes.

Your Wool-Dye Workshop

Time to start farming!

Sheep Farm

You will want to make some shears for yourself now!

Instructions for crafting shears in a video game, using two iron ingots.

Head over to your sheep farm and bring your dyes with you!

A group of sheep on a farm in a video game setting.

Hold your dye in your hand and right-click a sheep once. This will turn the color of the sheep to the dye you used to color them!

A colorful collection of sheep in a fenced enclosure with instructions for dyeing.

Grab some wheat and start breeding them to expand your colored wool farm.

A colorful selection of sheep on a grassy field in a game environment.

Take your shears and start shearing all the colored sheep!

Sheep with colored wool in a farm setting.

Questions for the Audience:

  • Do you have a colored sheep farm set up?
  • Did you enjoy and learn something from this tutorial?
  • What kind of tutorials would you like to see in the future?

I would love to hear a few words from the audience, so please... don't be shy!

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