In Sync With The Earth

Natural dyes are gentle on cloth, eco-friendly and an ode to India’s living heritage. Brinda Gill unearths the concept of natural dyes through some enriching insight from Sarfraz Khatri, Mumbai-based traditional hand-block printer at Pracheen.

   

“The fine art of vegetable printing and dyeing dates back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. Over three thousand years ago, Indian craftspersons turned out colour-perfect printed textiles without the sophistication of the present day dye technology. The raw materials for these colours were not chemicals but the roots and flowers of plants and vegetables”, says Sarfraz Khatri, Mumbai-based traditional hand-block printer at Pracheen (www.pracheen.com). He is deeply committed to the practise of hand-block printing using natural dyes in the footsteps of his father Ahmed Khatri, a master craftsperson who has received a National Award for his expertise in hand-block printing with natural dyes, and forefathers who practised hand-block printing.

FROM THE EARTH

Natural dyes are extracted from leaves, bark, flowers, fruits, vegetables, and roots following different techniques such as such as boiling, making a solution or making a paste. Among the ingredients used for obtaining colour are madder or mangishtha for obtaining a deep red, catechu for brown, mehndi for green, pomegranate skin for yellow, natural indigo for shades of blue, grey from eucalyptus leaves, shades of beige and brown from tea leaves, and black from fermented water of scrap iron.

A LABOURIOUS PROCESS