We Ship Worldwide

Free Shipping Within India

Himalayan Weavers

       Natural Dyes

Natural dyes used in hand-made woolen and pashmina shawls

One of our objectives in setting up Himalayan Weavers was to promote the use of natural dyes. As Pat and I did not have any knowledge of or expertise in dyeing, we learnt the basics from the internet. The first lot we dyed was about 2 kilograms of hand spun wool we had bought from a Bhotia family in Dunda village near Uttarkashi. We dyed it red with madder which we bought from a seller of Auyrvedic materials in Dehradun

The actual dyeing was done in our kitchen in Masrana, near Mussoorie. We took the dyed yarn to a weaver in a nearby town, Dhanaulti, and got a few scarves hand-woven to Pat’s designs. Encouraged by our success with madder, we tried other materials including tesu (flame of the forest) flowers, henna, pomegranate reed and catechu.

Dyes Chart

Natural dyes colour chart showing colours used in pashmina shawls

We use the following natural dyes

Natural Dyes Madder used to colour pashmina shawls

madder (Rubia cordifolia)

Natural Dyes Madder (1)

madder (Rubia cordifolia)

Natural Dyes Madder used to colour pashmina shawls
Natural Dyes Madder (1)
Natural Dyes Indigo used to dyes pashmina shawls

Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria)

Indigo

Indigo (Indigofera tinctoria)

Natural Dyes Indigo used to dyes pashmina shawls
Indigo
Shellac Natural Dyes used to dye pashmina shawls

Shellac (Laccifer lacca)

Shellac Natural Dyes

Shellac (Laccifer Lacca)​

Shellac Natural Dyes used to dye pashmina shawls
Shellac Natural Dyes
Tesu Flower Natural Dyes used to colour pashmina shawls orange

tesu flowers (Butea Monosperma)

Tesu Flower

tesu flowers (Butea Monosperma)

Tesu Flower Natural Dyes used to colour pashmina shawls orange
Tesu Flower
Sappanwood Natural Dyes used to dye woolen shawls

sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan)

Sappanwood Natural Dyes

sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan)

Sappanwood Natural Dyes used to dye woolen shawls
Sappanwood Natural Dyes
Harada Natural Dyes used to dye woolen shawls

harada (Terminalia chebula)

Harada Natural Dyes

harada (Terminalia chebula)

Harada Natural Dyes used to dye woolen shawls
Harada Natural Dyes
Tea Natural Dyes

tea (Camellia sinensis)

Tea Natural Dyes

tea (Camellia sinensis)

Tea Natural Dyes
Tea Natural Dyes

How We Use Natural Dyes

Himalayan Weavers Natural dyes for woolen shawls

We began dyeing wool yarn  in small pans, heating the dye bath on a domestic gas burner. However, we found that heating the dye bath on an open gas flame resulted in considerable loss of heat and energy. As a more energy-efficient alternative, we tried cold dyeing in which we left the wool in a bucket at room temperature for a few days. Although successful for most dyes, this method was not practical for large scale dyeing. We would have needed   hundreds of buckets and a lot of space to keep them. So, this also was not a good way to dye the large amounts of wool we would need to run a business.Our next attempt was to build tanks with immersion heaters and thermostats. The tanks were insulated with high-quality insulation sheets to conserve heat, and that reduced our consumption of electricity. But we faced another problem! The temperature of the dye bath was higher near the heater (bottom) and lower at the top. 

​This caused some unevenness in dye absorption and colour shade. Although the results were acceptable on the whole, we were not very satisfied. Then about four years ago we hit upon the idea of wrapping electric blankets around recycled 100 litre tanks and covering these with insulation sheets. These blankets keep the dye bath uniformly warm and produce dyed yarn of excellent quality. Also, as the blankets consume very little electricity, and there is no heat loss from the tank, the system is highly energy efficient. We have about 10 tanks, one for each dye, and we use the same dye bath for many months. As we don’t replace dye baths frequently, this saves a lot of water. On the whole we are very satisfied with our new system. It is simple, resource-efficient, and produces dyed yarn of excellent quality.

Store
Call Now Button