the process for dyeing red with natural dyes is among the most difficult and complex.

dyeing cotton with Madder

incoorporated in traditional red dyeing are the uses of fermentation, mineral treatments, organic acids, plant ashes and metal salts to effect some of the most permanent textile colours.
animalization, a process developed in india, was used on cotton to produce one of the most brilliant reds, utilizing krapp plants. to prepare the cotton for dyeing, the fiber is treated with solutions of rancid oil, animal entrails, dung ,alternating with alquiline solutions. in between the fibre is cured in the open-air which utilizes the light and warmth of the sun and the action of the morning dew. through a slow chemical transformation, the cotton fibres bond with particular fatty acids forming an emulsion, which allows a much greater absorption of mordant and dye, comparable to that of the animal fibres. Madder dyed following this process became known as Turkey Red as it was much produced in that land from the 16th century.

today the use of the red root dyes is largely limited to remote tribal peoples and a handful of workshops supporting traditional textile industries. Madder is still grown commercially in France, Pakistan and Iran, but the natural product has been largely replaced by modern synthetics. in Turkey, dyeshops still use natural reds but synthetic indigo for their carpet yarns. in india, natural indigo is still avaliable, and while traditional red block printing with gum and alum is still practiced, synthetic alizarin substitutes the Madder roots.