Our process of herbal dyeing was developed through extensive research on age-old dyeing methods practised since the days of the Indus Valley civilization. The process of herbal dyeing starts with the grey cloth passing through several stages of treatment before it becomes colourful and ready to wear. During this entire treatment, only natural processes are used.
1. Desizing
The washing of processed greige cloth starts with removing sizing, gums and oils used in the course of weaving by washing with natural mineral-rich water and sea salts.
2. Bleaching
Fabrics are exposed to direct sunlight and use of a natural grass base and animal manure starts the bleaching process.
3. Mordanting
To make the colours bright and fast, natural mordants such as myrobalan, rhubarb leaves, oils, minerals, alum, iron vat etc are used. We do not use heavy metal mordants like copper, chrome, zinc, tin etc
4. Dyeing
We use only medicinally rich herbs, plant material, minerals & oils like turmeric, myrobalan, castor oil, sea salt etc for dyeing fabric or yarn. We have aspired to achieve and retain the qualities of the herbs by immersing the plant material directly in the dye bath for the same reason.
5. Finishing
In herb dyeing, finishing is done by sprinkling pure water on the cloth and then stretching under pressure, using hand rolls, aloe vera, castor oil etc.
6. Recycling Plant
Solid and liquid waste is separated through the process of filtration and used for farming purposes as manure and for watering the fields.
Some facts of Chemical Processing
Chemical dyeing processes use over 8000 different chemicals in its various stages.
As high as 40 times the weight of the fabric, water is required to process the same.
Most of the so-called eco-friendly dyeing or LOW impact dyeing available on organic as well as conventional cotton is still being dyed by using huge amounts of chemicals and dyes but in permissible limits. Thus they may be LOW impact but certainly not NO impact.
