Natural Dye Carpet

Carpet is an important piece of art, endowed with beautiful designs and patterns. These designs and patterns are made distinctive using colors. Carefully chosen colors enhance the beauty of the carpet manifold. Carpet is colored either using natural dye or using chemical dyes. Natural dye carpet is however more preferred as they are environmentally benign and has no harmful effects. Moreover natural dye carpet becomes more beautiful with time whereas chemical dyed carpet deteriorates with time. No doubt chemical dyes have become frequent in the carpets but the connoisseur of art prefer only natural dye carpet. Apart from being non-environment friendly, chemical dye carpet has also ill effects on health.

The use of the natural dyes on the fabric is not new. It is believed that Chinese used natural dyes on their stuffs 2,600 BC. Until the 19th century plants and other vegetable and mineral matter were the only source of dyes. These dyes were however replaced by the chemical dyes later. However still carpet with natural dye is preferred most.

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The carpet using naturally extracted colors retain their color and charm for the longer duration of times. Natural dyes used on the carpet is extracted from various sources like:

• Plants
• Rocks
• Minerals
• Insects

Oriental Carpet: Natural Dye Carpet
Oriental carpet is known for its harmonious and radiant colors. The color scheme of the natural dye carpet can befit virtually all types of interior decor.

Colors used more widely on the Oriental carpets are reds, yellows and blues. Red is probably the most popular of all colors and is used frequently by the Turkish and Turkestan dyers. Persian natural dyed carpets use yellow and dark green whereas, blue is frequently seen in Caucasian fabrics, particularly those from Armenia.

Natural Dye Carpet: Dyeing Process
Dyeing of yarns for the carpet is a simple process. The yarn instead of being dyed in the skein is plunged into the dye. After sometime yarn is dried in the open air and eventually exposed to sun and dust. This process imparts to the shades of different strands an endless number of gradations. The gradations so formed lends vibrancy to the carpet woven.

Natural Dye Carpet Selection Tips
Often the experience eyes get deceived regarding the real nature of the dyes used on the carpets. However below are some tips that can help you to choose the natural dye carpets:

The natural dye carpet does not bleed when washed whereas, chemical dye carpet when wet, gives away the color. One should take this fact carefully if he is buying white carpet. This is because if you buy chemical dye carpet with white background then on being washed the colors of the carpet can spoil whole carpet and the carpet would look ugly.

The second test involves the rubbing of the carpet with fairly damp white cloth. In case of natural dye carpet the rubbing would led the fibers to come out and that will be the only colour that leaves the carpet. If the carpet is chemical dyed colour will actually bleed into the whiteness of the cloth.

There is one more way to locate whether the carpet is natural dye carpet or it is chemically dyed carpet. If carpet is expose to the sun for longer period of time and if the color of the thread near the bottom of the knot becomes different than the top of the thread, it is a chemical dye.