The complement that lasts

dyeing and textile painting with earth pigments and plants rich in tannin.

Abstract

Textiles are carriers of messages since ancient times, through their yarn, figures, and colors.Colors are sources of identity, they tell us what plants, animals and minerals existed in the context in which that textile was created, sharing a world of stories and processes in which the craftsperson inhabited, related to, and collected materials.

Many yarns can be recognized by their color and texture coming directly from animal or plant. For example, brown, black, or gray yarns that we can directly see in animal fleece or in different colors from plant dyes. But little is said or written about earth pigments, as a source for dyeing, painting, and identity representation of a culture, climate, and time according to the place from which they have been collected.

The labor carried out by craftspeople to get precise colors, implies knowledge coming from their direct relationship with the environment, the experienced technique and the stories told, which then become tradition and heritage.

Appreciating the craft of natural dyeing is part of caring for both the natural and cultural diversity of the place it comes from.