International Natural Dye Symposium, 2006
The Crafts Council of India
Paperback
Price unstated
* * *
I have an article on a passionate indigo-dyer of Basque origin, Jesus Ciriza - Larraona, in this beautiful publication. His unit, The Colours of Nature, is based in Auroville.
My opening paragraphs read:
"At the very heart of a vat of natural indigo lies a mystery. A mystery so deep, so dark, and so unresolved that it had led to trade wars over four centuries, even to secret ingredients safeguarded by generations across continents and cultures.
"The dye waters in the vat and the bubble-like blue 'flowers' on its surface often mature for a decade or more. Within it are shrouded secrets about gender power, scientific home-truths and, oddly enough, clues to why natural dyes are still prized more than their synthetic counterparts in our consumer-centric, globalized world.
"From Pliny to William Morris, the world has been enchanted by the colour chemistry of indigo ~ its documented odyssey remains as multi-stranded as the most intricate carpets. The US-based textile scholar Mattiebele Gittinger once noted, 'It has been judged that there are nearly 300 dye-yielding plants in India. Of these, none was both artistically and commercially more important than indigo.
"Isn't that why Vasco da Gama's journey round the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 signalled a sea route by which indigo, valued like raw silk and tea, could be accessed by European traders? Or why the Yoruba dyers of Nigeria turned their process into an art couched in ceramic jars? Or why William Finch, a merchant entrusted by the East India Company to buy indigo in 1610, dated to outbid the emperor's mother, thus jeopardising his equations with the establishment, leading to his untimely death?
"Superstitions and local sciences have actively shaped the propagation of indigo. On Flores, an Indonesian island, sour fruit is forbidden near the vats ~ in case the fermented dye goes rancid. In southwest China, wood chips are used to darken the dye, while Savu islanders use betel nut and turmeric. In ancient Pompeii, a urine vat was placed outside the dye house for male visitors to provide the mildly alkaline reducing agent so crucial to woollen fibres. As a corollary to local wisdom, a Javan dye vat was known to 'sulk' if a marital dispute occurred in its vicinity. Or equating the vat with the womb, Thai dyers cover their vats in a hurry whenever a death in the village is reported. And in Japan, the world 'ai' embraces both the concepts of
'love' and 'indigo'...."
