Tinctorial Textiles is a new step in the research of natural colours, taken by Raw Color and Ecological Textiles. A palette of thirteen colours has been created and executed in semi translucent wool. The overlap of the fabrics blends the colours into new shades. The applied dyes are especially developed for this project.
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For thousands of years mankind has dyed with natural materials, mostly derived from plants. Compared with this long history, the invention of synthetic colours in the nineteenth century is a recent development. Contrary to synthetic colours - always petrochemical products - natural dyes are biodegradable. They are also considered to be more beautiful and they always match perfectly with other colours.
These natural colours have been applied on a very fine lightweight mousseline, woven from organic wool. A superb quality, super soft, gentle on the skin and 100 percent biodegradable. Wool sheds no microplastics, is long-lasting, dirt resistant, perfectly recyclable and has natural flame retardant properties. Organic wool means that extra care was given to animal welfare and that the highest social and ecological standards were followed in every step of the production chain.
Important properties of wool that make the material particularly suitable for curtains or other interior applications are its good warmth-insulating and sound-absorbing capacity. The sound absorbing capacity of wool is comparable to that of mineral wool and polyurethane foam.
Due to its high water and nitrogen content, wool is naturally fire retardant. It will only ignite if subjected to a very powerful heat source in combination with high levels of oxygen. Even then it smoulders rather then it burns.
Contrary to synthetic fibres it does not smell or stick to the skin. Therefore the Tinctorial Textiles fabrics have no fire retardant finish. However, when required it is possible to supply the fabrics with an eco-friendly and biobased fire retardant finish.
Natural colours are more vibrant and richer. Unlike synthetic dyes, which
always consist of only one colouring molecule, vegetable dyes are always the result of the synergy of several colouring substances present in the plant, sometimes even of different chemical groups and (almost) colourless
substances. In other words: synthetic dyes
The colours in Tinctorial Textiles are derived from the three 'classical' dyeing plants, that have been used for centuries by dyers because they produce beautiful colours and because they have a good light- and wash fastness. Madder is used for the reddish hues, weld for the yellowish hues and indigo for the blueish hues. All dyes are applied in different concentrations to achieve more variations in colour. New shades are created by overdyeing the fabric with another colour resulting in greens, purples and oranges.
Weld (Reseda luteola) is native in Eurasia and produces splendid yellow colours.
Madder (Rubia tinctorium) was grown on a large scale on clayey soils along rivers all over Europe. The madder we use comes from the Dutch province of Zeeland, once one of the important madder producing areas in Europe.
Indigo was already used for dyeing in prehistoric times. In Europe the dyeing substance was extracted from the woad plant (Isatis tinctoria). Synthetic indigo was already invented in the 19th century, but we used vegetable indigo.