page_title: Natural dye
section_title: Processes
hierarchical_section_title: Natural dye / Processes
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wollfärberei English: dye works
context_page_description: Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources—roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood—and other biological sources such as fungi.
  Archaeologists have found evidence of textile dyeing dating back to the Neolithic period. In China, dyeing with plants, barks and insects has been traced back more than 5,000 years. The essential process of dyeing changed little over time. Typically, the dye material is put in a pot of water and heated to extract the dye compounds into solution with the water. Then the textiles to be dyed are added to the pot, and held at heat until the desired colour is achieved. Textile fibre may be dyed before spinning or weaving, after spinning or after weaving. Many natural dyes require the use of substances called mordants to bind the dye to the textile fibres. Mordants are metal salts that can form a stable molecular coordination complex with both natural dyes and natural fibres. Historically, the most common mordants were alum and iron.
context_section_description: After mordanting, the essential process of dyeing requires soaking the material containing the dye (the dyestuff) in water, adding the textile to be dyed to the resulting solution (the dyebath), and bringing the solution to a simmer for an extended period, often measured in days or even weeks, stirring occasionally until the color has evenly transferred to the textiles.
  Some dyestuffs, such as indigo and lichens, will give good color when used alone; these dyes are called direct dyes or substantive dyes. The majority of plant dyes, however, also require the use of a mordant, a chemical used to "fix" the color in the textile fibres.  These dyes are called adjective dyes or "mordant dyes".  By using different mordants, dyers can often obtain a variety of colors and shades from the same dye, as many mordants not only fix the natural dye compounds to the fibre, but can also modify the final dye colour. Fibres or cloth may be pretreated with mordants (pre-mordant), or the mordant may be incorporated in the dyebath (meta-mordant, or co-mordant), or the mordanting may be done after dyeing (post-mordant).
  Natural alum (aluminum sulfate) has been the most common metallic salt mordant for millennia (see Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis, mordant and dye recipes start at recipe #84), but tin (stannous chloride), copper (cupric sulfate), iron (ferrous sulfate, called copperas) and chrome (potassium dichromate) are also used.  Iron mordants "sadden" colors, while alum and tin mordants brighten colors.  Iron, chrome and tin mordants contribute to fabric deterioration, referred to as "dye rot". Additional modifiers may be used during or after dying to protect fibre structure, shift pH to achieve different colour results, or for any number of other desirably outcomes.
  Textiles may be dyed before being spun or woven fibre (dyed in the fleece or dyed in the wool), as spun yarn (dyed in the hank or yarn-dyed), or after weaving (piece-dyed). 
  In China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Gambia, and other parts of West Africa and southeast Asia, patterned silk and cotton fabrics were produced using resist dyeing techniques in which the cloth is printed or stenciled with starch or wax, or tied in various ways to prevent even penetration of the dye when the cloth is piece-dyed. The Chinese ladao process is dated to the 10th century; other traditional techniques include tie-dye, batik, Rōketsuzome, katazome, bandhani and leheria.
  Some mordants and some dyestuffs produce strong odours, and the process of dyeing often depends on a good supply of fresh water, storage areas for bulky plant materials, vats which can be kept heated (often for days or weeks) along with the necessary fuel, and airy spaces to dry the dyed textiles.  Ancient large-scale dye-works tended to be located on the outskirts of populated areas.
caption: A dye-works with baskets of dyestuffs, skeins of dyed yarn, and heated vats for dyeing.
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