Natural dyes, first discover by shepherds and farmers many moon ago, are extracted from plant or animal material and fall into two categories. The first are naturally coloured, the second need to be put through an elaborate process in order to reveal their coloring properties .
In the first category, there is walnut hull which colors the fingers brown when cracking open green nut, or the cochineal insect which colors red the fleeces or grazing sheep when passing through thorn bushes. In the second category the coloring principle is to extract the main color in a form of past (from where it gets its name pastel) and kept in balls called “cocagne” in Languedoc , France.
The great master weaver of today still use natural dyes, mixed by themselves or by working closely with a selected self-employed master dyer attached to their workshop .
The ingredients , doses and quantities used for the range of dyes are a closely guarded secret. It is extremely difficult to copy a color; the principal original feature of a master weaver’s signature is in his mastery of natural dyeing.
Maser-dyer use colors extracted from bark, root , stalks and dried leaves, ground to powder . For example, the dried peel of pomegranate, a cream color in powdered from will produce a matt yellow color .
Well known by furniture makers in Europe, powdered walnut hull ( or Pust-e-Gerdu in Persian) will color from a range of browns to black. Dried vine leaves will offer a range of colors from khaki to grey; ground twigs of weld give a strong, golden yellow that is particularly bright on silk.