The art of dyeing is a source of inspiration and creativity for carpet designers

In the distant past, many people used different materials to paint their homes and everything around them for more fun and change, and this led to the emergence of what is called the art of dyeing, which later included a craft in coloring clothes, collectibles, and textiles such as carpets, rugs, and other textiles and mattresses in different shapes. More modern, read on to know more about it

What is the art of dyeing?

The main source of dyes were two main materials used to produce high-quality carpets. Firstly, high-quality, transparent wool with long fibers, and secondly, the presence of objects and plants in nature around it to obtain a natural and rich color sourced from a wide range of plants, minerals, and insects, which contain colored substances and liquids since that stage was the observation and discovery of these plants is the first stage of human benefit One of the elements of nature, and it was not limited to dyeing carpets only, but also to his clothes and everything he made with his hands. In the beginning, man used these dyes for self-adornment, and these were usually reserved for men only!

A dye is a substance that reflects color by absorbing certain wavelengths of visible light. As for carpet dyeing, it is an art through which the color material is determined in special conditions, whether in terms of temperature or in terms of the structure of the carpet fibers. It is used in dyeing the fibers and affects the color of the carpet. The carpet, more precisely, it can be said that the art of dyeing the carpet means repainting the carpet and fixing its colors with the help of synthetic or natural dyes that will take on the color of the carpet with relative durability.

This industry refers to a process in which fibers and yarns of wool or synthetic fibers are dyed by means of various materials and dyes. Dyeing helps to display the products of the textile industry in different designs and colors. As a result, these products are sold to satisfy the tastes of different customers. Organic dyes are mainly found in animals and plants while inorganic pigments are found in minerals.

In a more accurate definition of the art of dyeing on cloth..

It is a process during which a textile product, such as fiber, yarn, fabric, or clothing, is placed in a solution containing dyes and chemicals, to be dyed, and the dye molecules establish a strong bond with the molecules of the textile product with relative durability. In other words, dyeing is a skill in which Dye substance to a certain temperature and time, penetrating into fibers or textile (woven) goods and dyeing them, in dyeing, dye generally refers to all natural or chemical substances that have the ability to dye fibers or textiles, the color of dyed product should not be easily washed off or exposed to light .

What are the types of dye?

industrial dyeing

In which colors for textiles are extracted from non-dissolving materials such as animal and plant tissues, and therefore it is not possible to truly consider them as real dyes with the use of adhesives in the color fixation stage, and they are divided into two types of dyes:

1. Mineral dyes cause a change in the colors of the fabric through springs of water that contain iron compounds, which contributes to their interaction and color change after a period of time and the creation of different dyes.

2. Synthetic dyes that were discovered by finding the purple color extracted from coal tar, which is one of the most important raw materials in the manufacture of dyes, which led to a scientific revolution in the world.

natural dyeing

It is divided into vegetable dyes extracted from flowers and plants, some of which are popular today, such as the henna dye for women’s hair, which gives an orange color, and other varieties that were used in the past, such as the dye of bug wood that gives black and brown color together and is used in dyeing cotton and silk, and the dye of the indigo tree is used in Dyeing wool and cotton, which gives a blue color, and the dye of the saffron plant is specially used in dyeing silk, which gives yellow color to the fabric. There is also a well-known type of dye that is still used today, namely,
The second type is animal dyes, including the dye of the cochineal worm that gives a red color and the dye extracted from the turtle and is known as the red dye cochineal, and the other type is extracted from the white sea oysters and is known as the Tyrian purple.

The art of dyeing fabric

After converting the cloth into yarn, it is dyed in large containers within a set of steps to reach the stage of color stability on the yarns, using machines by attracting the cloth within quantities of dyes in the form of liquid substances or wheels that press the cloth at a rate of 90 meters per minute. .

Workers can also print a specific art form or a specific design on the textiles and distribute the colors as desired within the parts of the cloth through full control through the dedicated screen or wheels engraved with the designs and then pouring them onto the fabric, known as silk screen printing.

Stages of carpet dyeing

The dyeing process differs according to the quality of the carpet texture, but there are always basic steps that most dyeing workshops take part in. The following are the most important stages of dyeing carpets with natural fibers:

1. The process begins with degreasing the threads in hot water for about half an hour, adding 3% sodium carbonate with a little soap added in case the fibers are too greasy, after that, the threads are soaked for 12 hours and cooked for an hour in an alum bath ( instead of dichromate in Europe).

2. The dye is diluted in a tank filled with water, the amount depends on the desired dye, then we add the skimmed wool before boiling it, and after about 12:30 noon, it cools for about 12 hours, then it is rinsed in the river and dried in the sun.

3. In some areas, the wool is immersed in an alum milk bath and exposed to the sun for 3 days, then rinsed before being mixed into the dyeing vessel. When the dye is absorbed, it is removed and water and cow urine added, then returned to the tank for 15 minutes, before being dried in the sun.

Note that the main reasons for the quality and popularityof handmade carpets are the beauty, stability and durability of their colors, while dyeing the materials needed for weaving carpets is a task that requires artistic taste, vision and precision of an industrial trainee, and carpet dyeing experts use traditional dyes from the heart of nature, many of which can be found easily, And without any high costs, to create stable colors that are protected from light, air and other natural factors for hundreds of years, so that carpets become a valuable treasure that increases in value every year.