REDS
| Dupion silk dyed with madder root. |
| Madder roots have been used as a dye since pre-history, over 5,000 years ago. Archeologists found traces of madder in linen in the Tutankhamen tomb (1350 BC) and wool in Viking burial grounds. Popular legend says that Druids used garments dyed with madder in girl's coming of age ceremonies. More recently, madder has been used to dye the leather of cricket balls. |
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| The madder plant is related to coffee (family Rubiaceae). The seeds look like black pepper. The plant takes three to five years to mature. I have three madder beds, that I dig in alternate years. |
|  | Madder plant sprouts in early April. |
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| Digging a four-year old madder bed (above) and cutting the roots (right). I use gloves when handling madder to avoid a skin rash. |
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|  Washing the root (left) and clean roots (above). Close-up of a cut root (right). |  |
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In my workshop I cut the roots in small pieces and leave them soaking overnight in a bucket of water. The next day I grind the them in small batches in the liquidiser. Then I put the ground roots in a stainless steel saucepan and apply gentle heat for a couple of hours. I lower pre-mordanted silk in the dye vat and leave it soaking for 3 or 4 days. Madder is very sensitive to temperature, and anything over 80 C tends to destroy the red colour. Madder is also sensitive to the mineral content of the water. It is easy to get orange reds from madder, but more difficult to get a true red. Some dyers advocate throwing away the first two buckets of water used in the soaking, and only use the third soaking for dyeing. Others suggest adding chalk to the vat, to make the water hard. |
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| DYER'S WOODRUFF (Asperula tinctoria) |
| Another plant of the coffee family, which produce red from the roots. |
| LADIES' BEDSTRAW (Galium verum) |
| Related to madder but the roots are finer, and produce a paler colour. The flowers, however, are very fragrant and smell of honey; they are reported to be a potent afrodisiac. |
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BRAZIL WOOD (Caesalpinia spp) |
| No, I don't grow Brazil wood in my allotment! However as I come from Brazil I could not resist using this dye. The word brasa means 'embers' in Spanish, and Brazil wood was first mentioned as a dye in 1321, sourced from E. Indies and India. The country of Brazil was named for the wood found there and not vice-versa. |
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SAINT JOHN'S WORT (Hypericum perforatum) |
| You can get red, yellow and green from the flowers, depending on the mordant used. |
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