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A rainbow of plants Vegetable dyes. The most outstanding feature of the traditional textile business. The weaver-dyers mastered the art of making colours out of herbs and plants. They explored local forests for raw materials. Jackfruit wood was used for a bright yellow. Kala siris bark yielded brown and pea flowers produced green and blue. Chayaveru gave Kalamkari textiles that pinkish red. Harda was used for varying shades of yellow. Haldi/turmeric was the brightest of all naturally occurring yellow dyes. Curcumin, a natural pigment, was extracted by soaking haldi root in acidic solution. Orange came from the flowers of gulmohur and safed kikar leaves yielded black. Safflower yellow was also a very popular colour. Safflower contains a water-soluble yellow dye and an orange-red dye, which is soluble in an alkaline solution. Artisans colleced fresh flowers before they faded on the plant and the corollas were removed. The yellow dye was extracted by washing the corollas for three to four days in acidified water, which dissolved the colour pigment. But the dyes that were most in demand were indigo and madder. How were these colours extracted? Indigo Blue: The indigo plant was soaked in a vat or a barrel, which was buried underground to protect it from sunlight. The product was a pale yellow solution. This was paddled continuously for two to three days till a blue substance emerged on the top. This was then strained out and blue cakes were made out of it. Madder Red: Red dye was obtained from the madder plant. Its roots were washed and dried and ground into powder. This was then mixed with gum or water to obtain a deep red hue. In the 19th century, Turkey red, a brilliant crimson shade, was extremely popular. In fact, all madder-dyed fabrics did brisk business. |
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Recycling of PAPER
Recycling of paper is something which most Indian households practise by selling old newspapers to the raddiwalla. But you can do more — reuse and recycle — like making rough pads from unused sheets of old notebooks, writing and photocopying on both sides of the paper, reusing used envelopes by folding them inside-out. If you enjoy making things, here is a recipe by which you can make your own recycled paper! 
You will need
(Courtesy : DEAN programme, Development Alternatives) |
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