Three women and the art of vegetable dye

There is strength in numbers, as proved by three women - a mother, Maya Singh, and her two daughters Kavita Mathur and Richa Malik.  Reviving the ancient and rich art of vegetable dyeing under the brand name 'Karma,' the trio have given natural colours a new meaning in their crepes, silks and satins. Sarees, dress material, scarfs and dupattas with Tapas inscriptions are their forte. "Tapas are an ancient tribe near New Zealand. Their designs are very primitive with a more rural look," says Richa Malik, a fashion designer from FIT, New York. Today, she works as a designer and dye technician for Jessica Ogden, a designer in New York, whose interest lies in working with old fabrics and old art.

"Natural vegetable dyed fabric is more like organic food, good and soothing on the system. These dyes are obtained from parts of nature that nature no longer needs, such as extracts from plant roots, flowers, leaves, skins, rinds and barks. Most of them have medicinal properties, which are beneficial to man," says Kavita Mathur, while talking about the values of using natural components. Kavita and Maya initially had no inkling of the craft and means of designing and dyeing fabric. While Kavita has a degree in Mass Communication and had worked for Channel V, her mother has an MSc degree in Home Science. These enterprising women were first introduced to vegetable dyes in Calcutta, where they had a glimpse of the wonder of this art. Their imagination captured, they then went on to study the art under Toofan Rafai, a 74 year old dye artist in Ahmedabad. What followed was experiments with colours, working of various aspects of design, which ultimately resulted in strengthening family bonds.

The vegetable dyeing process involves dyeing, mordanting, printing, drying, steaming, etc. Each colour takes up to three days to be prepared, with eaach stage requiring tremendous manual work. "A unique feature of these vegetable dyed fabrics is that when worn, used and washed frequently, fabric colours, instead of fading, actually become more brilliant. Provided vegetable dye fabrics are not exposed to strong caustic soda detergents, the colours will remain fresh even when the fabric gives way to ageing," says Kavita. She talks about the misconception that colours run with vegetable dyes saying, "If the fabrics are mordanted, colour fastened using a colour fixer such as alum and then treated properly, no colour should run. The myth is propagated by the abundant availability of poorly processed vegetable dye fabrics."

There are approximately 300 dye-yielding plants from where they obtain the required colours. The most commonly used colours are that of the petals of Marigold (a brilliant gold colour), Harad (jungle yellow), Haldi (forest yellow), Manjith root (tunga red), pomegranate rind (yellow), Katha (brown), Eucalyptus leaves (light green), leaves of Neel (indigo) and Henna leaves for the rich mehendi hue. Various combinations of these colours are used for different shades. "Most of these natural dyes have medicinal properties. Harad has anti-viral properties, henna is a cooling agent, haldi has anti-bacterial properties, Neel soothes burns, scalds and insect stings," Richa explains. But these ingredients and raw materials are dependent on the weather, the availability, purity, extraction procedure and the consistency. More often for the purest of dyes, the plants have to be cultivated specifically for the purpose.

"Vegetable dyeing is more than just an art or craft. It is about nature and our relationship with it, about shunning the manufactured complexity of our lives and reaching out to the simplicity and beauty that surrounds us. We live in a world where whatever came after is always considered better than whatever came before. In the case of vegetable dye, this is definitely not the case," the sisters conclude passionately. They plan to make London their next destination for vegetable dyes.

Author: Anupama Vinayak
Photographer: Vinayak Prabhu