In India, experimenting with colors and concocting dyes for fabrics dates back thousands of years. A mordanted cotton cloth from the site of Mohenjodaro, scriptural references, and cave paintings of Ajanta confirm this. There is enough evidence to claim that the hand block printing technique existed even during Indus Valley Civilization. Preparing dyes to print clothes has been around long enough to have evolved into fine art, and the dye makers sourced the natural dyes of block prints from various sources. We shall touch on a few of these in this article.
The expertise of Indian artisans in dyeing and printing cotton textiles remained unparalleled and coveted for centuries. Britishers, when they landed in India, were enchanted by the vibrant colors on the clothes of the natives. And fine Indian cotton did not take long to find its place among other exotic commodities like silk, indigo, and spices. From their trading posts at Surat, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, dyed cotton fabrics, too, began to be imported into England.
Return of Natural Dyes
The advent of chemical dyes pushed natural dyes to the verge of extinction. Compared to organic dyes that are difficult to produce and complicated to dye clothes with, rendering them expensive and rare, chemical ones are cheaper, easy to use, and colorfast. As generations pass, the number of natural dye makers is dwindling. It is now at a stage where the knowledge of dye-making ought to be deliberately preserved for the future.
However, over time, the ill effects of cheap alternatives began to show. Chemical dyes proved harmful to humans, aquatic life, and the environment. Concerns over this led to a movement favoring natural and vegetable dyes that are eco-friendly, bio-degradable, non-carcinogenic, and non-allergenic. Environmentalists, fashion designers, natural dye practitioners, and fashion connoisseurs championed this trend, reviving the teetering traditional textile industry of the country. With increased wages and improved living and working conditions, artisans who had abandoned their generations-old family crafts could be seen returning to the trade.
Artisans of Bagru village of Rajasthan never stopped using natural dyes for their classic hand blocks like Ajrakh, Dabu, and Bagru. Klum showcases a mesmerizing collection of salwar kurtas crafted from block-printed fabrics dyed with natural colors like indigo, myrobalan, madder, and so on.
Sourcing Natural Dyes of Block Prints
Vegetable dyes are sourced mostly from parts of plants like roots, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, and even seeds. There are also mineral dyes such as red ochre, and some are sourced from animals like lac and kermes.
Some of the commonly used natural dyes are:
Indigo
The oldest, most popular, and most majestic of all dyes, indigo is extracted from the leaves of the Indigofera plant. Indigo works well with natural fabrics like cotton, silk, and wool.
Myrobalan
Terminalia chebula is a tree native to Asia, and myrobalan is extracted from its nuts. Myrobalan is both a dye and a mordant and imparts a light creamy yellow to the cloth. Overdying with a single indigo dip achieves teal.
Lac Extract
The insect Kerria Blacc’s resin is used to make this dye. This insect is again a native of southeast Asia and India. Lac extract gives deep reds ranging from crimson to burgundy with tin and deep purple shades with copper mordants. Other mordants with lac yield are black, olive green, grey, yellow, amethyst, and so on. Lac works well with silk and wool and is known for its subdued, soft hues.
Himalayan Rhubarb
Rhumemodin, or Himalayan rhubarb, is extracted from the roots of a type of mountain rhubarb of the Himalayas. This herb yields deep golden yellow to orange and red shades.
Kamala
This dye is sourced from flowers of the Kamala – Mallotusphilippensis, a tropical tree that grows in India. It gives yellow hues to clothes and is best suited for silk and wool.
Pomegranate
Dye from the rind of the pomegranate fruits gives yellow to matte green shades that have good light, wash and rub fastness. When overdyed with indigo, pomegranate gives out blue-green to olive-green shades.
Madder
The dye is extracted from the roots and root barks of Rubia tinctoria or Rubia cardifolia. Madder trees are native to Turkey, India, and Iran. This dye is the secret of Central Asian Turkey Red and yields orange, pink, and red shades.
Cutch
The bark of the Acacia catechu or Indian gum arabic tree is the source of the cutch. Cutch gives beautiful shades of brown like cinnamon and nutmeg, yellow, black, grey, and so on, and is colorfast.
Walnut
The bark of walnut trees gives colorfast brown shades.
Sappanwood
From Southeast Asia and India, sappanwood gives a red wood dye that yields shades of purple, lavender, and red.
Henna
Lawsoniainermis, commonly known as henna, is a shrub, the leaves of which are ground for color. Henna is more popular as a dye for hair, skin, and nails due to its strong bonding with protein. With cellulose, henna gives light yellow to green shades.
Tamarind
Leaves, wood, and fruits of Tamarindus indica are used to make the dye. Tamarind is also a great dye fixer.
Dhataki
Woodfordiafruticosa or dhataki’s leaves and flowers yield yellow, pink, and red colorants.
Arjuna Tree
The bark of Terminalia arjuna, or arjuna tree, is a source of a yellowish-brown pigment that bonds well with cotton fiberes are found rampantly in the eastern states of India.
Manju Phal
This colorant is extracted from the nut galls of the Manju phal tree and is used to dye silk and wool. It is both a dye and a mordant and imparts a cream color with alum and grey with iron.
Annatto
The seeds of bixin or annatto make a dye that gives bright orange or peach hues to silk and wool.
Golden Dock
Yields brown with alum, copper sulfate, and ferrous sulfate as mordants.
Fenugreek
Gives a yellow color with metallic fixers like copper sulfate and ferrous sulfate, to cotton fabrics.
Mordants or Fixers of Natural Dyes
The color fastness of organic dyes depends greatly on the mordants. Mordants fix the colors of the cloth fibers and enhance the quality of the fibers. These fixers also deepen the colors and improve the colorfastness of the dyes. Some popular mordants are an alum, tin, copper, chrome, iron, etc.
