By: Lia Contesso
Submitted: 2010-04-20 08:57:11 | Word Count: 479
Despite the rise of synthetic colors, even today the most prestigious manufacturers of the East use almost only natural dyes, now extracted and prepared in a very old manner, in case of some villages also the use of these dyes is also more convenient than the high cost of the chemicals ones. In the family of "natural" color the most famous are certainly the plant ones, they are extracted from leaves, roots and fruits of various plants that are grown today in some plantation in Turkey called "oyalik", and located near the areas where carpet weaving is more intense.
Among the natural dyes of animal origin that are used for dyeing wool, the best known is the one coming from a small parasitic plants, the Indian and Mexican cochineal, crushed and pulverized, it produces a red color with almost shades of blue. Similar to scale insects are the PorphirophoraHameli that allows the production of purple and another Turkish insect that produces the characteristic Armenianred.
Without the need for any procedure are instead the brown, black or white dyes of the animal wools, either sheep, goats or camels when they are used in their natural color.
Contrary to the endless range of vegetable dyes, mineral colors found in nature and traditionally used for dyeing wool are few. They are produced by oxidation of iron (black and gray) and copper sulphate (orange) and by the combination of other salts with vegetable dyes. These substances have the disadvantage of discoloring with long exposure to light.
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At first glance one is led to express an adverse opinion on the synthetic dyes, but they also have given and continue to make their important contribution in the production of knotted carpets. First of all, without them, many productions now would certainly have disappeared or reached such dizzying prices it would not promote a healthy business, but only an elite one. Secondly, the spread of chemical colors has certainly broadened the color gamut and this variety often contributes to make carpets even more beautiful.
Chemical dyes can be with aniline, first introduced into East from Germany in 1870, or chromium. The former are very poor, do not resist water and are easily recognizable as the reverse of the carpet maintain a very full tone, and the fleecefade easily. The seconds are good from all points of view. With systems of chemical dyes you get those carpets "faded" or "low" in color, which meet the Western taste, for their originality and which were made first by the British. The best contemporary productions adopt mixed coloring procedures with natural dyes that flank some synthetic dyes used for the most special color types and polychromies.
