Herbal Dyeing Process

Thu, 02/18/2010

Since most of the organic textile available in the market is still processed and dyed using loads of chemicals, even if it is so called azo free or low impact chemical dyes we searched further. The herbal dyeing process is completely chemical free and thus one step ahead of organic textile. The process of herbal dyeing starts with the grey cloth passing through several stages of treatment before it becomes colourful and ready to wear.

Desizing - The washing of processed greige cloth starts with removing sizing, gums and oils used in the course of weaving by washing with natural mineral-rich water and sea salts.

Bleaching - Fabrics are exposed to direct sunlight, use of a natural grass base and animal manure starts the bleaching process.

Mordanting - To make the colors bright and fast natural mordants (an element which aids the chemical reaction so that the fiber absorbs the dye, preventing the colour from either fading with exposure to light or washing out) such as Myrballams, rhubarb leaves, oils, minerals, alum, iron Vat, etc., are used. No heavy metal mordants like copper, chrome, zinc, tin, etc., have been used.

Dyeing - Medicinally rich herbal formulations using plant material, minerals & oils like, turmeric, Myraballm, castor oil, sea salt etc are used for dyeing of the fabric or yarn. The medicinal qualities of the herbs are retained by immersing the plant material directly in the dye bath. The cloth does not loose its medicinal effect even after constant use since the medical dyes (herbs) go into the yarn itself. The yarn is dipped into the herbs and the fabric is dipped again.

Finishing - This is done by sprinkling pure water, Aloe Vera, Castor oil etc on the cloth and then stretching under pressure, using hand rolls.

Recycling Plant - Solid and liquid waste is separated through the process of filtration and used for farming purposes as manure & watering the fields.

	Commercial Dyeing	Eco-Friendly Dyeing	Vegetable Dyeing	Omved Herbal Dyeing
Since when	Developed 80 years ago	Developed 10 - 15 Years ago	Developed 60 years ago	Developed over 5000 years ago. Time-tested
Pollution	Leads to heavy pollution. Uses 8000 chemicals	Pollution under check, but 8000 chemicals still used	Cheap synthetic dyes and chemicals are still used	No pollution whatsoever as colors are from herbs, flowers, stems, roots
Allergies	MOSTLY allergic, pro-microbial inflammatory and bad for respiration	COULD be allergic, pro-microbial inflammatory and bad for respiration	DEPENDS on chemicals used	The herbs used CURE allergies and have anti-microbial, antiinflammatory properties
Cancer	42 cancer producing chemicals could be present	Only 22 banned cancer causing amines eliminated	DEPENDS on chemicals used	No carcinogenic amines present
Fabric quality	The fabric used may be synthetic or natural	The fabric used may be synthetic or natural	The fabric used can be synthetic, if chemicals used	The process is possible only on natural fabrics e.g. silk, cotton, wool
Chlorine bleach	Chlorine bleach is used	Hydrogen Peroxide bleach	Mostly Chlorine bleach is used	Only Natural / Manure bleaching
Detergents	Mostly non-biodegradable detergents used	Mostly degradable detergents used	Could be non-biodegradable or degradable detergents	No detergents used
Textile strength	Weakens the textile fiber as strong chemicals used	Weakens the textile fiber as strong chemicals are used	Depends on chemicals involved	Strengthens the textile fiber, hence lasts longer
Ecological	Even if organic textile base, lots of lethal chemicals used for dyeing, so not 100% pure	Incomplete ecological textile cycle even if organic textile due lots of harmful chemical in processing	Incomplete even if combined with organic textile base because in some stages chemicals are still used	100% pure - Organic textile base along with natural herbal dyeing successfully completes the ecological cycle
Carbon credits	Low opportunity for earning carbon credits	Low opportunity for earning carbon credits	Low opportunity for earning carbon credits	Immense scope of earning carbon credit through clean development mechanism scheme (CDM)
Carbon footprint	Large carbon footprint	Large carbon footprint	Large carbon footprint	Almost Zero Carbon Footprint