In Wednesday’s post I described my bedside stands as being “madder-coloured” and it occurred to me that I should do a little follow-up piece for those of you unfamiliar with the world’s oldest source of red dye. Madder root, also known as Rubia, has been harvested, dried and boiled to produce dye for at least 5,000 years. Cloth dyed with madder root pigment was found in Tutankhamun’s tomb and in the ruins of Pompeii and ancient Corinth.
Although it can be quite vivid as in the samples below, madder typically refers to a rustier red like the carpet above (photo courtesy of Mannam Carpets) or it can have a rosy, purplish cast. Madder is to red as Indigo is to blue, a valuable commodity that predates chemical dyes by centuries. Madder’s dye agent, alizarin, was the first natural pigment to be synthetically duplicated in 1869; the resulting colour, known as “Turkey Red”, is exemplified by the quilted star above (photo courtesy of Fabrics.net).
Photo left courtesy of Mannam Carpets and right courtesy of Renaissance Dyeing
When I started researching madder I was surprised to see how many hardcore crafters and small businesses are out there making their own natural dyes according to ancient recipes. Websites like Aurora Silk, Renaissance Dying, Red2White, FluffBuff and Wild Colours provide a wealth of information about madder dye including detailed instructions and formulas should you get the urge to try your hand at this amazingly impractical diversion.
Photos courtesy of Hog Bay Pottery & Susanne Grosjean Rugs
Naturally-made vegetal dyes are more colour-fast than modern synthetic products but as the Mannam Carpets website notes, “Vegetal dyeing is almost an art form perhaps because of the many variables involved - even plants from the same geographical area, gathered at different times can produce varying shades due to seasonal changes.”
There’s a book on the subject that I’d love to dig into called The Root of Wild Madder by Brian Murphy (Simon & Schuster 2006); I especially like the book’s subtitle: “Chasing the History, Mystery and Lore of the Persian Carpet”.
And lest you think madder is exclusive to the Mediterranean and exotic Near and Middle East, I’ve discovered that it grows right here in Ontario.
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