I Campi di Mais: All colors of the world

Humans were always fashinated by color and had a tremendous liking for colored substances for hundreds and thousands of years.

A thousand years back, having a beautiful colored fabric was a high status symbol.

Dyeing of textiles go back to the Neolithic period; dyed flax fibres have been found in the Republic of Georgia in a cavehave dated back to 36000 years before Christ’s birth. The process of wool dyeing had been established as a craft in Rome as long as 715 BC.

By the way. We’ll try to dye with natural metod. In this case colors are obtained from palnts sources: roots, fruits, berries, leaves, funghi, lichens, flowers, some kind of wood.

It is impossible for us to know how and when the primitive man discovered that roots or some plants can produce color, but that’s it. We should thank him…anyway! ☺

Just for fun or to make something different to wear, try to dye some wool or fabric, or an old shirt or everything you want!

To make the dye solution: chop plant material into small pieces and place in a pot. Double the amount of water to plant material. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about an hour; let cool, add two cups of white vinegar and add your fabric (or other) to be dyed. Boil for an hour, allow material to soack in the dye overnight. When the dye will be cold, drain and wash the material in cold water, allow to dry in a shady place away from sunlight.

Learning more about dye plants will help you better appreciate fragments of textiles museum, as well as Medieval tapestries and costumes. Recreating an ancient technique, like dyeing wool with traditional natural dyes, forges and band between you and the artisans of the past.

You will find great satisfaction in knitting or wearing a scarf dyed with the same colors used by Pharaones, Celts, Vikings and Medieval Kings and Queens.