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Natural Dyes Return To Oriental Carpets But Without Famous Insect Reds
Friday, June 20, 2008
CHAHARMAHAL District, Iran– When Iranian photographer Javid Tafazoli
was walking through a weaving village in the mountains of Chaharmahal va
Bakhtiyari province, far to the west of Isfahan, he saw an arresting sight.
It was a cascade of recently dyed red wool hanging from a tree. In a world
grown used to garish colors, the mellow brick-red shades looked like a
startlingly natural part of the landscape. He snapped the picture and entitled it
simply “Red.”
The same picture could be taken in many villages in Iran today, where
weavers are increasingly returning to using natural dyes. They hope that
going back to traditional materials will raise the quality of rugs and the value
people put on them.
But if there is a new desire to derive red from age-old sources such as
the root of the Madder plant, which gives hues ranging from pink to rose to
scarlet, another ancient group of reds seems certain not to return. They are
the once famous insect reds.
For centuries, dyers dried and powdered insects to produce colors
ranging from pink-lilac through bright crimson to deep-brown-purple. In many
areas where the dyes could not be produced locally, they were prized imports.
The first insect dye to be traded in large commercial quantities was
Indian lac, derived from the Caccus lacca bug. The insect, which feeds on
ficus trees in India, was also a source for lacquer and shellac used on
furniture.
The fame of Indian lac grew so great that it was exported over huge
distances. In their authoritative book ‘Oriental Carpets,’ Murray L. Eiland and
Murray Eiland III say the dyes have been detected in Safavid and Ottoman
court carpets as well as on 19th century Turkmen rugs. That is despite the
fact that madder was the standard and abundant source for red from Turkey
to Central Asia.
Later, lac gave way to still higher quality reds obtained from the Indian’s
bug’s distant cousin, the South American cochineal. The cochineal reds --
traded in the Aztec and Mayan empires and still used in Mexico and Peru
(below) -- were discovered by Spanish conquistadors in 1519.
The Europeans considered cochineal to be the perfect red dye because it
is stable, easily absorbed by fabrics, and extremely resistant to fading.
The brilliant red comes from the carminic acid in the body of the female
cochineal larva, which also makes the bug unpalatable to predators. The
Spanish bred the bugs for size and color and created huge ranches of cactus
– the bugs’ favorite home. To produce a kilogram of the dye required some
155,000 dried insects and, by 1770, at the peak of the trade, Mexico was
exporting some half a million kilos a year.
The global business in cochineal dyes is documented in the 2005 book
‘A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire’ by
Amy Butler Greenfield.
Eventually, the Spanish expanded cultivation of the bugs to the Canary
Islands and North Africa. But the lucrative business finally came to an end
with the invention of chemical dyes in northern Europe in the mid 19th
century. Within decades, cochineal red, along with madder, virtually
disappeared from use under a tide of synthetic replacements.
Now, in a world saturated with artificial colors, natural dyes are slowly
making a comeback. But, in a strange twist for the carpet industry, the once
so abundant and highly sought cochineal dyes remain forgotten. The reason
is economics.
After they were swept from the textile industry by synthetic dyes, cochineal
reds – also known as carmine – found a new and more profitable place in
the cosmetics and food coloring industries. Today carmine is a high-priced
specialty dye that puts the red in red pistachio nuts, maraschino cherries and
Italian aperitifs. Its advantage over man-made red dyes is that it is not toxic or
carcinogenic.
That means that making a rug with cochineal dyes today would cost a
fortune. The giant cactus farms in Mexico may still exist and the dyes may still
be exported, but carpets with insect reds belong to the past.
Friday, June 20, 2008
CHAHARMAHAL District, Iran– When Iranian photographer Javid Tafazoli
was walking through a weaving village in the mountains of Chaharmahal va
Bakhtiyari province, far to the west of Isfahan, he saw an arresting sight.
It was a cascade of recently dyed red wool hanging from a tree. In a world
grown used to garish colors, the mellow brick-red shades looked like a
startlingly natural part of the landscape. He snapped the picture and entitled it
simply “Red.”
The same picture could be taken in many villages in Iran today, where
weavers are increasingly returning to using natural dyes. They hope that
going back to traditional materials will raise the quality of rugs and the value
people put on them.
But if there is a new desire to derive red from age-old sources such as
the root of the Madder plant, which gives hues ranging from pink to rose to
scarlet, another ancient group of reds seems certain not to return. They are
the once famous insect reds.
For centuries, dyers dried and powdered insects to produce colors
ranging from pink-lilac through bright crimson to deep-brown-purple. In many
areas where the dyes could not be produced locally, they were prized imports.
The first insect dye to be traded in large commercial quantities was
Indian lac, derived from the Caccus lacca bug. The insect, which feeds on
ficus trees in India, was also a source for lacquer and shellac used on
furniture.
The fame of Indian lac grew so great that it was exported over huge
distances. In their authoritative book ‘Oriental Carpets,’ Murray L. Eiland and
Murray Eiland III say the dyes have been detected in Safavid and Ottoman
court carpets as well as on 19th century Turkmen rugs. That is despite the
fact that madder was the standard and abundant source for red from Turkey
to Central Asia.
Later, lac gave way to still higher quality reds obtained from the Indian’s
bug’s distant cousin, the South American cochineal. The cochineal reds --
traded in the Aztec and Mayan empires and still used in Mexico and Peru
(below) -- were discovered by Spanish conquistadors in 1519.
The Europeans considered cochineal to be the perfect red dye because it
is stable, easily absorbed by fabrics, and extremely resistant to fading.
The brilliant red comes from the carminic acid in the body of the female
cochineal larva, which also makes the bug unpalatable to predators. The
Spanish bred the bugs for size and color and created huge ranches of cactus
– the bugs’ favorite home. To produce a kilogram of the dye required some
155,000 dried insects and, by 1770, at the peak of the trade, Mexico was
exporting some half a million kilos a year.
The global business in cochineal dyes is documented in the 2005 book
‘A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire’ by
Amy Butler Greenfield.
Eventually, the Spanish expanded cultivation of the bugs to the Canary
Islands and North Africa. But the lucrative business finally came to an end
with the invention of chemical dyes in northern Europe in the mid 19th
century. Within decades, cochineal red, along with madder, virtually
disappeared from use under a tide of synthetic replacements.
Now, in a world saturated with artificial colors, natural dyes are slowly
making a comeback. But, in a strange twist for the carpet industry, the once
so abundant and highly sought cochineal dyes remain forgotten. The reason
is economics.
After they were swept from the textile industry by synthetic dyes, cochineal
reds – also known as carmine – found a new and more profitable place in
the cosmetics and food coloring industries. Today carmine is a high-priced
specialty dye that puts the red in red pistachio nuts, maraschino cherries and
Italian aperitifs. Its advantage over man-made red dyes is that it is not toxic or
carcinogenic.
That means that making a rug with cochineal dyes today would cost a
fortune. The giant cactus farms in Mexico may still exist and the dyes may still
be exported, but carpets with insect reds belong to the past.
