ART & SCIENCE OF NATURAL DYES
What is Natural Dyeing?
Natural dyeing is a process of colouring textiles with dyes from plants, fungi, or insects. Until-mid 19th century, textiles were dyed with natural colourants. In 1856, the first synthetic dye was developed but the natural colorants were still used for another 50 years. In the past, to achieve certain hue and colour effects, dyer often used environmentally harmful and toxic chemicals such as arsenic, chromium, and lead acetate. In our recent history, the utilization of synthetic dyes has increased with the growth of fast fashion, they commonly use azo dye or other chemical compounds which are toxic and carcinogenic.
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Why Do We Use Natural Dyeing?
For today's natural dyers and our brand, we must seek to attain the best results possible in an environmentally sustainable and responsible way. Natural dyeing is not just a colouring process for the textile, it is also an artistic way for us to respect the tradition of how garments were coloured and also an artisanal practice to embody the movement of slow and sustainable fashion.
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In Our Practice
Chemicals and dye materials were ethically sourced from suppliers from Canada and all chemicals and dyes for dyeing the garments are safe for the environment and non-toxic to skin and water body. The natural dyes we use have high colourfastness, meant to last long with love and care. We are trying our best to re-utilize the water body to avoid water wasting. Natural dyeing is an art of science. The PH, the water mineral level, the temperature, the types of dye, and the type of fabric are the factors affecting the final colour. We have done lots of experiments to find the colour in a certain hue and tone that we desired, since we dye in a small batch (we dye the fabric in each order), the tone might be slightly different. However, that is the beauty of natural dye and you have your own unique "tone" in colour. If you are interested in learning how to apply natural dyes in your life, please visit our YOUTUBE channel.
At last, we would like to thank our customers for appreciating our traditional practice of using natural dyes and helping to protect our nature together. Sustainable fashion is not just fashionable clothing but also a lifestyle we should be living in.
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