The Ancient Art of Natural Dye Purple
Thousands of tiny snails were sacrificed to make the royal purple of ancient times. Owning a cloth handwoven and colored with this natural dye was a symbol of high status—the power and wealth of royalty and the church.
Purpura-dyed cotton yarn.
The Power of Purple
Huge mounds of shells still exist today in the area around Tyre, an ancient seaport of Phoenicia. The inhabitants were skilled craftsman and merchants and they dedicated themselves to the art of dyeing purple. The Kingdom of the Blood Red Men created cloth so rare that some called the little snail the holy purple mollusk. Myths, tales, and mystery surround the spiny murex dye. Tyrian purple cloth, so expensive due to the labor-intensive dye process, was reserved for royalty – kings, emperors and the upper classes of society. Purple and royal blue, made from another related snail, were colors out of reach for commoners.
Two shells of Bolinus brandaris, the spiny dye-murex, source of the dye. Photo credit: M. Violante, Haustellum brandaris.
Archeologists in Tyre and elsewhere uncovered mounds of Murex shells which were broken in the exact spot necessary to obtain the dyestuff.
The Empress Theodora, the wife of the Emperor Justinian, dressed in Tyrian purple from the 6th century.
Finding the Purple Dye
Intensive research by today’s biologists, chemists, archeologists and ethnographers, reveals that the practice of shellfish dyeing extended far beyond the Mediterranean area and was indeed a global phenomenon. And the spiny murex was just one species used for dyeing. Evidence exists to prove that dyeing with various species of shellfish was practiced on the Atlantic Coast of England, ancient Asia, particularly Japan, Central and South America and beyond. It is still pursued today on a limited scale in Oaxaca and Costa Rica using techniques that do not destroy the tiny mollusk.Only thirteen Mixtec dyers are still extracting purple dye from Purpura sea snail along the Oaxacan Coast. View a short video here of the dye being extracted in a sustainable method.
About fifteen species of purple producing mollusks exist, all belonging to the family Muricidae, a large and varied group commonly known as murex snails or rock snails. The colorants are closely related chemically to indigo. Only a tiny amount of colorant exists in each creature, adding to the rarity and increasing the power and prestige of the high status, purple cloth that was colored with this dye. Today we cannot destroy the threatened mollusks to color our cloth, so the story of purple must follow another thread.
The dye begins to oxidize the cotton, turning shades of green to purple.
Huiples in natural cottons and shellfish-dyed purple accents.
Pozahuancos fabric.
For the Love of Purple
The love of purple continues to color our lives. I am rather attached to this rich, wondrous color, in all of its tints, tones and shades; purple has always comforted me like an old sweater. Psychologists who study the effects of color on people say purple can be uplifting and encourage creativity; it can calm the mind and offer a sense of spirituality. It contains mystic and royal qualities, is well liked by creative and eccentric types and is the favorite color of adolescent girls! Somewhere in there must be the reason many of us love purple.
I became even more intrigued with purple when the poem, When I Am Old I Shall Wear Purple, became popular back in the 80s. My admiration for purple increased because I began to see it as a renegade color, outlandish and provocative, but also a color for the old and wise. It went beyond decoration and clothing; it was a mantle for those who didn’t care if they fit into proper society. Our purple thread runs from royalty to renegade, from extraordinary to everyday. Is there a place for purple in your life? Imagine the fun you can have creating purple in your natural dyepot? Combine indigo with a variety of red dyes or give alkanet root a try. Let’s salute the tiny creatures that wrapped royalty in a most exotic color and continue to inspire us today.
Resources
Cardon, Dominique, 2007, Natural Dyes, Archetype Press, London.
Sandberg, Gosta, 1996, The Red Dyes: Cochineal, Madder and Murex Purple: A World Tour of Textile Techniques, Lark Books, Asheville, NC.
Natural Dyeing with Red Cabbage
To continue our series on natural dyeing at home with food waste, we chose a food product that has incredible dyeing possibilities! Red cabbage can give you very intense pink, purple and blue hues. Sometimes with natural dyeing is hard to get stronger or deeper colors if you are using cotton as your main fiber. This is why cabbage was such an easy and fun dye to play with! Take a look at our recipe and tips to get long lasting hues!
What you will need:
- Alum powder or an aluminium stone. There are some great wesbites that sell natural dyeing materials. Dharma Trading sells alum powder. If you are using powder, you will need only 1 tablespoon of powder per 100g of fiber. If you are in Colombia or in other countries outside the US and Europe, I recommend buying aluminium stone, which can easily be found in pharmacies or online. They sell small packs of 1 stone in pharmacies and you just need 1 or 2 for this project. (I am using alum stone for this tutorial).
- One red cabbage (Depends on how heavy your fibers are) A rule of thumb to make sure you the deep colors is using a 50:50 ratio for the weight of your fibers and your dyestuff. I am going to use half a medium size cabbage which weights approximately half a kilo and 500g of fiber. Natural dyeing only works with natural fibers. Make sure that the yarn skein or cloth that you pick is made out of cotton, wool, linen, alpaca, any animal or vegetable fiber. That means no polyester or nylon fabrics.
- A knife and cutting board
- Rubber gloves
- A large staining steel pot.
- A pair of heat resisting gloves.
- A wooden spoon.
- Optional: If you wish to do some shibori (tie-dye) design to your piece then you’ll need rubber bands, cotton rope and/or wood blocks.
A few things first before we dive into the process. As I mentioned above, natural dyeing is an ancient craft where science meets art. I want to explain some important words that I will be using as I explain each step.
If you read our past blog entry on avocado dyeing you might be familiar with the term “mordanting”. This is basically the first step when dyeing any fiber with natural dyes to assure your color will not wash-off when you wash your fibers after dyeing them. We copied the same information about what mordanting is, and how to go about preparing your fibers prior to start dyeing.
MORDANT/MORDANTING
To make sure the colors we obtain from our dyestuff do not run off once we wash our fibers, we need a mordant. The word mordant means “to bite” and that is literally what the mordant’s purpose is. A mordant is generally a natural chemical (such as aluminium which we will be using in this tutorial) that adheres to the fabric in a molecular level with the goal of preparing the fiber molecules to adhere to the molecules of the dyestuff better. This step is essential if you want your color to last and not fade away when washed after the dyeing process. This is what makes your color last for a long time, we call it color-fast.
DYESTUFF
We will be referring to our avocado pits and skins as the “dyestuff”. This word is used to describe the power, substance or material that when used for dyeing purposes it yields color.
PROTEIN FIBERS
Protein fibers are fibers that come from animals. Examples include wool, angora, mohair, cashmere, alpaca and also silk from insects. Protein fibers are made out of 20 amino acids. Dye particles generally adhere more easily to protein fibers than cellulose because they have many different substances to attach to.
CELULLOSE FIBERS
Cellulose fibers are fibers that come from plant sources. Examples include cotton, flax, hemp, jute, linen and bamboo. Cellulose is a polymeric sugar polysaccharide which means the molecules they are made out of are mainly glucose. When dyeing cellulose fibers, dye particles can only adhere to sugar particles as suppose to 20 amino acids in protein fibers. This is why when cellulose fibers are dyed, the color tends to be less strong than in protein fibers.
Steps for Mordanting your Fibers (for colorfastness)
Firstly we are going to prepare your fibers to soak up and adhere to the color as much as possible. I personally prefer to always mordant all my fibers with aluminium prior to dyeing because it makes the colors stronger and even more long lasting. Is a simple easy step that helps you rest asure your color won’t wash off after dyeing.
- Boil enough water in a medium size pot. Just enough to cover your fibers.
- Introduce 1 aluminium stone or 1-2 teaspoons of aluminium powder (based on the weight of your fibers)
- Mix thoroughly until dissolved.
- Wet your fibers. Make sure your fibers (t-shirt or yarn skein) are fully wet before introducing.
- Introduce your fibers to the hot pot and simmer for 1 hour.
- Move your fibers around every once in a while. Do not let the fibers sit. This will avoid having uneven color and help you get nice even results
- Remove and wash with cold water.
