Herbal Dyes or as in Wikipedia: “Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates,a or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources – roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood — and other organic sources such as fungi and lichens.” Which have considerate advantage over conventional dyes, where various 8000 chemicals are known to be used in textiles industry for getting today’s vibrant colors.
Turmeric is a great example of a Natural Dye, used in Asia for many years and it is a fantastic herb to treat small cuts and wounds. It is actually an antiseptic and anti inflammatory herb, which means that you can stick it right into your first aid kit. Which makes Turmeric an ideal dye for fabrics that touch the skin of people, especially those allergic to fabrics dyed conventionally and infuse with chemicals.
So what if they use lots of chemicals in conventional dyes and my skin is not allergic? Well, a good example of what’s wrong with these chemicals appeared in New York Times article, which shows a satellite image of blue dye and other chemicals, as they flow into the river in such amounts it changes the color of the river temporarily.
One of the globe leading organic and herbal dyes fabric mill is Aura Herbal. Which does a great job a providing truly eco-friendly textiles. They use organic cotton fiber and natural dyes; instead of other fabric mills which offer organic fibers that are then dye conventionally. Below is a brief of Aura’s processes along with a chart displaying the different Herbs they used and the array of colors which such Herbs produce.
“The process of herbal dyeing was developed through extensive research during the age-old dyeing methods practiced since the days of the Indus civilization. The process of herbal dyeing starts with the gray cloth passing through several stages of treatment before it becomes colorful and ready to wear. During this entire treatment only natural processes are used.
Fabric & Yarns used are certified organic cotton, natural cotton, silk, wool, linen, jute, hemp etc. and their natural blends.
The washing of processed greige cloth starts with removing sizing, gums and oils used in the course of weaving by washing with natural mineral-rich water and sea salts.
Fabrics are exposed to direct sunlight, use of a natural grass base and animal manure starts the bleaching process.
To make the colors bright and fast natural mordents such as Myrballams, rubhabs leaves, oils, minerals, alum, iron Vat etc are used. We do not use heavy metal mordents like copper, chrome, zinc, tin etc.
Aura uses only medicinally rich herbs, plant material, minerals & oils like, turmeric, Myraballm, castor oil, sea salt etc for dyeing fabric or yarn. We have aspired to achieve and retained the medicinal qualities of the herbs by immersing the plant material directly in the dye bath for the same reason.
In Herbal Dyeing, finishing is done by sprinkling pure water on the cloth and then stretching under pressure, using hand rolls, aloe Vera, and castor oil.
Solid and liquid waste is separated through the process of filtration and used for farming purposes as a manure & watering the fields.”
In following post we’ll further explore some of the above mentioned herbs and it’s properties.