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Natural dyes are derived from naturally occurring sources. Although natural dyes have been used for centuries, their use was greatly reduced with the development of synthetic dyes in the nineteenth century. These natural dyes are experiencing renewed interest because of the importance of green and natural products. While natural dyes are renewable and sustainable, their use can be controversial. Natural dyes are a great tool for educators because they add interest to many areas of education including history, natural science, math, art, social studies, and family and consumer sciences.
The traditions and crafts associated with adding color to textiles and other materials were important to almost all historic cultural groups. Naturally occurring colored materials or natural colorants were used to paint the body; add interest and pattern to clay, basketry, and wood objects; and color textiles. Archaeological evidence and documentation of materials and practices of anthropologists and others demonstrate the important cultural role of natural colorants (Barber, 1991). Until 1856 when the first synthetic dye was created, natural sources of color included plants, insects, animals, and minerals. The colorants that bond with textile fibers or other materials are collectively described as natural dyes. Natural dyes were one of the components that fueled the spice trade and were significant trade commodities for centuries including most of the nineteenth century (Casselman, 1993; Fereday, 2003; Liles, 1990).
Because of the widerange of colors possible with natural dyes, medieval and cultural dye recipes were carefully protected and rarely recorded so that dyers could maintain a competitive advantage over their competition. Unfortunately, when dyers switched to synthetic dyes, their knowledge of the traditional craft of natural dyes died with them. By 1910, most commercially available textiles in the North American and European markets were dyed with synthetic dyes. By the 1930s most ethnic groups who had maintained a dye tradition after contact with Europeans had also switched to synthetic dyes.
Natural dyes and plant-based pigments are colorants derived from natural sources such as plants (e.g., indigo and saffron); insects (e.g., cochineal beetles and lac scale insects); animals (e.g., some species of mollusks or shellfish); and minerals (e.g., ferrous sulfate, ochre, and clay). Heat and water as the solvent are used to extract the natural dye from the dyestuff (the...