Natural Dyes

Long before the alchemists became chemists who created dyes in laboratories, there were dyers who extracted colors from flowers, leafs, roots, the outer and inner bark of trees as well as their heartwood. The earliest record of the use of natural dyes is from China, way back in 2600 BC.

Dyes were a significant part of medieval culture. They were considered so important that ships carrying dyes were actually allowed to pass through enemy lines. The story goes that in the Middle Ages, one of the finest red dyes came from a tree called Sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan). The dye was the lustrous red of burning coal and early Portuguese traders called it bresil or brasil. So when they discovered and claimed a land on the Atlantic side of South America, where sappanwood trees abounded, they called it terra de brasil, and later Brazil.

Did You Know?

• The earliest written record of the use of natural dyes was found in China dated 2600BC!
• In 1856, while trying to synthesize artificial quinine, 18-year-old chemistry student William Perkin instead produced a strangely beautiful color. Perkin had stumbled across the world's first aniline dye, a color that became known as mauve!
• Prior to 1856, the only textile dyes available were those that could be found in nature.
• Tyrian purple, a natural dye, was so expensive that its use was restricted to royalty. It was obtained from a small Mediterranean shellfish and produced in the ancient Phoenician city of Tyre. The shellfish were small both in size and in numbers. It was estimated that it took 8,500 shellfish to produce one gramme of dye

There are three types of Natural Dyes.

1. Plant-based dyes: Examples of these are Madder and Indigo. Analyses of red fabrics found in King Tutankhamen’s tomb show that they were dyed with , a plant-based dye. Till the early 1900s, indigo was commonly made from a family of flowering plants called indigofera. It was cheap and plentiful, and so favoured by the working class (hence the term blue collar worker).
2. Animal-based dyes: The purple robes of royalty, in Ancient Rome were dyed using using a substance extracted from a rare crustacean called a Trumpet Shell (Purple Fish) which was found near Tyre on the Mediterranean coast. An estimated 8,500 shellfish were crushed to produce one gram of the dye, which made it so expensive that only kings could afford to use it.Deep red or crimson was produced from a species of scaled insects, cochineal, and was probably first used by the Aztec and the Maya.
3. Dyes made with minerals, colored clays and earth oxides. For example, ochre, made from iron ore, is one of the oldest pigments and has been in use since pre-historic times.

ndigo is one of the oldest natural dyes used in textile printing. It imparts a brilliant blue hue to fabrics. Indigo belongs to a class of dyes called vat dyes, which are among the oldest natural coloring substances used for textiles.

Indigo was known throughout the ancient world for its ability to color fabrics a deep blue. Egyptian artifacts suggest that indigo was employed as early as 1600 BC and it has been found in Africa, India, Indonesia, and China. India is considered to be the oldest centre of indigo dyeing in the world.

Handicraft that Use Indigo Dye

One method of dyeing using Indigo is Resist Dyeing. In this, the area in the pattern that does not need to be dyed, is painted with wax (which resists the dye). The fabric is then dyed with Indigo, and the wax is removed by boiling. Ajrakh Printing in Kutch and Sindh, and Kalamkari textiles from South India use this dyeing technique.

Another method of creating patterns using Indigo dye is to dye fabric all over with indigo first and then remove dye from some areas by printing with bleach. This is called discharge dyeing and was not used much until the 19th century.

To buy Indigo-dyed products, go to Anokhi Home and Fabindia