Simon Marks Textiles | NATURAL DYES

I like natural dyes, because they have a raw earthiness, a three dimensionally in tone that is often lacking in the flat finish found with chemical dyes. It is as if they have a life of their own.

As a painter primes a canvas, so a dyer must mordant their yarn or cloth.

The magic pungency of indigo, the wonderful and often elusive quest to achieve a beautiful red.

The bitter tannic taste of the Myorbolan fruit, which yields so many browns.

Rhubarb root knarled and quite sinister to look at, but offers up such a warm and rich yellow.

Pomegranates: Scoop out their ruby-red jewels, dry the skins out in the sun, and boil them up and you have another beautiful yellow.

The acrid spicy smell of lac dye releasing it’s colour from the resin, combined with the tart smell of tamarind leaves.

Colour that is coaxed from root, bark, mineral and resin. Pounded, stirred, mixed, fermented, dipped, painted, boiled, strained and rinsed.

Salts of Alum, Rosella, cow dung, nut oils.