a brief history
indigo blue
indigo extraction
indigo plants
indigo dyeing
dyeing yellow
yellow dyes
dyeing red
red roots
red insects
dyeing green
bark browns
dyeing black
soap and soda
alum, iron, dung
Sources - Quellen
Saponaria, Yucca and Agave species, among others, contain saponins in their rhizomes, leaves or fruits. these are fat- and oil-dissolving substances which have been used as natural soaps for millennia. Indigenous peoples in many lands used such natural products to clean the hair, wool and plant fibres. soap is made with the combination of alkali and fat or oil, and has been produced since ancient times.
 Handwashing, South India |
some of the most ancient records of civilization, cuneform tablets made of clay form the Mesopotamian cultures provide detailed explanations of the textile industries from 4000 years before our time. soap then was made using palm oil or castor oil (Ricinus) with potash, soda and resin. wool washers in biblical palestine burnt 'salsola-kali' (Salicornia) a plant rich in sodium, for their detergent. the word alkali, meaning basic in nature, is derived from arabic 'al-quali', meaning plant ashes. Borit, also of biblic mention, is Saponaria officinales, a plant used in the east to clean wool for carpets. |
in the time of the Romans, Plinius wrote of the production of soap following Germanic and Gallic recipes. Ingredients incuded animal fat, Beech tree (Fagus) extracts, plant ashes and calc. although the Romans aparantly didn't use soap per se, the socalled Barbarians differentiated between several qualities of hard and soft soap, depending on whether production incoorporated the ashes from land plants or sea algae (Fucus vesculosus, F. nodosus). Later in the 12th century the regional production of olive oil and ashes from Mediterrannean alge played an important roll in the development of the French city of Marseilles. Savon du Marseilles is still today of world renoun.
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Saponaria officinalis L., S. ocymoides L.
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 Saponaria officinalis |
natural soda, sodium carbonate, was used in making glass, glazes and enamels, and for bleaching textile fibres. It is important for scouring cotton prior to dyeing. mixed with clay or talc, soda produces a rough soap.
fullers earth is a special earth with fat and oil dissolving capabilities which is collected from dry riverbeds. fullers earth is still used in India for washing and natural dye procese.
 the sodabath |
the soda bath is the most important part of the colouring of cotton. cotton fibres are the packing around the cotton seed, and as such are impregnated with cotton seed oil, which must be removed before the fibres will absorb anything. coton fibres are boiled in a soda solution for up to six hours. |
in primitive cultures, indeed in many 'civilized' societies, urine was collected in jars set in public places. textiles containing fatty substances (for example, dirt) are washes in fermented urine, and the urine and fats combine to form a kind of ammoniac soap. the ammonia produced in fermented urine was also used as a medium for dyeing indigo and for bleaching cloths. strange, no, that while today urine is thought of as being "dirty" or unclean, it was for millennia higly valued for it's cleansing property.