Colours and Natural Dyes

Natural Dyes and Colour

The use of natural dyes enhances the beauty and elegance of the traditional Turkish rug. Chemical dyes are also used, however these tend to provide a harsher colour, and do not have the beauty and lustre of natural dyes.

Colour is very important in the design of a Turkish rug or Kilim, as each colour has it's own significance. Red, for example, represents courage, luck, joy and faith, but is also associated with sorrow. Blue represents power and strength, orange, the colour of the Dervishes, represents humility and piety, and white is associated with purity and innocence, cleanliness and selflessness. Black is rarely used as a major colour in rug design except as an outline, as it is the colour of mourning.

The main ingredients used for natural dyes are:

Yellow: Chamomile, Buckthorn, Spurge, Three Leafed Sage and Bast Hemp

Blue: Dyers Woad, Indigo

Brown: Walnut, Pomegranate,

Red: Madder root

Typical mordants or fixers, to fix the dye to the fibre include salt, alum and iron.