Indigo, madder, turmeric, pomegranate. Behind every colour of a block print fabric, there is a plant, a mineral, a skill passed down from generation to generation. Our artisans in Jaipur do not open a Pantone swatch book: they prepare dye baths from living materials, just as it has been done for over four millennia. Here is the story of these pigments — and what they reveal about every Kirane piece.
Indigo — the king of blues
If you had to choose just one colour from block print, it would be indigo blue. Extracted from the leaves of Indigofera tinctoria, a legume cultivated in India since antiquity, indigo dye is one of the oldest in the world. The Egyptians used it to dye mummy wrappings. The Romans called it indicum — the substance from India.
The dyeing process is a spectacle in itself. The indigo plant's leaves are harvested, steeped in stone vats for several days, then beaten vigorously to oxidise the pigment. The liquid turns from yellow-green to deep blue under the effect of the air. It is a fascinating chemical reaction: the pigment does not exist in the plant itself — it is born from the transformation.
Did you know? Indigo has a unique property among dyes: it does not dissolve in water. To dye fabric, the pigment must first be chemically reduced (made soluble) in an alkaline bath, then oxidised on contact with the air. This process explains why fabric comes out of the vat yellow-green and only turns blue as it dries in the open air.
In our workshops, indigo is used both as a background dye — to achieve the deep blues that characterise our collections — and in direct stamp printing, to trace patterns of intense blue on a light ground. The final shade depends on the number of dips in the bath: a single dip gives a pastel blue, ten successive dips produce an indigo that is almost black.
Madder — the red of the earth
Red is the other great colour of Rajasthani block print, and it comes from the roots of madder (Rubia tinctorum). This creeping plant, a relative of the coffee plant, grows for three years before its roots are sufficiently charged with pigment to be harvested. The roots are dried, ground to a powder, then boiled to release alizarin — the molecule responsible for that characteristic brick-red hue.
Madder is inseparable from the history of global textiles. It was used to dye the uniforms of the Napoleonic armies, Japanese kimonos, and of course the printed textiles of Rajasthan. In Sanganer, madder has been associated for centuries with fine floral motifs on a white ground — a tradition that earned the town a protected designation of origin.
Madder and mordant. Madder does not bind directly to cotton. It needs a mordant — a metallic fixative — to adhere permanently to the fibre. Alum (aluminium sulphate) gives a bright, luminous red. Iron gives a dark brown, almost black. A single madder bath, two different mordants, two radically different colours: this is one of the wonders of natural dyeing.
On Kirane pieces, madder appears in a range from powdery pink to deep terracotta red, including rust and coral tones. Each shade depends on the concentration of the bath, the mordant used, and even the quality of the water. This is why two batches dyed just days apart will always display subtle variations — the hallmark of a living dye.
Turmeric and weld — the gold of Rajasthan
Yellow is omnipresent in Rajasthani block print. The primary source is turmeric (Curcuma longa), a root better known in the kitchen than in the dye workshop. Dried and ground to a powder, it releases curcumin — a sunshine-yellow pigment of remarkable intensity. Turmeric is also a natural antiseptic, which gives dyed textiles a mild antibacterial quality.
The other source of yellow is weld (Reseda luteola), also known as dyer's rocket. More lightfast than turmeric, weld produces a warmer yellow, tending towards gold. The dyers of Sanganer and Bagru often use both in combination: turmeric for vivid tones, weld for golden hues and cream backgrounds.
The fruit of the harda (myrobalan, Terminalia chebula) plays a less visible but essential role. Used as a natural mordant, it gives the fabric a pale yellow tint before dyeing and prepares the fibres to better absorb pigments. The artisans of Bagru use it to achieve their characteristic backgrounds — that warm yellow-beige that immediately distinguishes a Bagru fabric from a Sanganer one.
Sanganer vs Bagru. These two Rajasthani towns, only 30 km apart, embody two distinct block print traditions. Sanganer is known for its fine floral motifs printed on white grounds, using vivid dyes (madder, indigo). Bagru favours bolder, larger patterns on tinted grounds — that yellow-beige achieved with harda, or a deep black from iron and mud. Two palettes, two aesthetics, one millennia-old craft.
Mordants — the invisible chemistry
Natural pigments alone do not hold on cotton fabric. An intermediary is needed — the mordant — which forms a chemical bridge between fibre and dye. This is the best-kept secret of artisanal dyeing, and it explains why an authentic block print fabric retains its colours for years, while a poorly fixed synthetic dye fades after just a few washes.
The three fundamental mordants of block print are:
Alum — Naturally sourced aluminium sulphate. Produces bright reds, pinks and luminous yellows. It is the most widely used mordant in Sanganer.
Iron — Iron acetate obtained by rusting nails in palm vinegar. Darkens all shades: madder turns to brownish-black, myrobalan to deep grey.
Harda — Extracted from the myrobalan fruit. A universal pre-mordant that prepares the fibre and lightly tints the background pale yellow. Indispensable in the Bagru tradition.
The dyer's art lies in mastering these combinations. A single madder dye bath will produce a vivid red on a zone mordanted with alum, a deep brown on a zone mordanted with iron, and leave no colour at all on an unmordanted zone. The artisans exploit this principle to create multicoloured patterns in a single dye bath — one stamp applies alum mordant for the reds, another applies iron mordant for the blacks, and the whole piece is dipped together in the madder vat.
The dabu technique — resisting to reveal
Dabu is one of the most fascinating techniques in block print. It is a resist printing process: instead of applying colour, a paste is applied that prevents colour from penetrating. The fabric is dyed, the paste is removed, and the pattern appears in negative — light on a dark ground.
The dabu paste is an ancestral recipe made from four ingredients: black clay, lime, wheat chaff (the husk of the grain) and gum arabic. This paste is applied with a stamp onto the fabric, just as ink is in direct block print. The fabric is then sprinkled with sawdust (to prevent the layers from sticking together) and dyed. Wherever the paste protects the fabric, the colour does not penetrate.
The dabu crackle. During drying, the clay paste naturally cracks and fissures. The dye seeps into these cracks and creates a network of coloured veins on the resist-printed pattern — a unique crackle effect that is impossible to reproduce by machine. Each dabu-dyed piece thus bears a truly unique pattern, shaped by the controlled chance of the clay's fissuring.
The process can be repeated multiple times — a layer of paste, a dye bath, a new layer, a new dye — to build complex patterns with three or four colours. An elaborate dabu fabric can require up to two weeks of work, between the stages of application, drying, dyeing and washing. The result has a texture and depth found in no other textile printing technique.
Why natural pigments make the difference
One might think the choice of natural pigments is primarily aesthetic or nostalgic. It is much more than that. Natural pigments give textiles properties that synthetic dyes simply cannot replicate.
Colours that live. A fabric dyed with natural pigments never has exactly the same colour from one batch to the next. This variability, far from being a flaw, is what makes each piece unique. The colours also evolve over time: they soften, develop a patina, gain depth with each wash — whereas a synthetic dye merely fades uniformly.
Deep penetration. Natural pigments, combined with mordants, penetrate to the very heart of the cotton fibre. If you turn over a naturally dyed block print fabric, the pattern is visible on the reverse. By comparison, synthetic inks remain on the surface — they form a film on the fabric rather than becoming part of it.
Minimal environmental impact. Natural pigments are biodegradable. The rinse water contains no heavy metals or volatile organic compounds. The energy used to prepare the dye baths is essentially human. On the scale of the global textile industry — the second most polluting industry in the world — this is a considerable difference.
Preserved textile qualities. Unlike chemical dyes that can stiffen fabric or reduce its breathability, natural pigments do not affect the qualities of cotton. A khadi dyed with turmeric remains just as soft and breathable as an unbleached khadi. Some pigments — such as turmeric and neem — even have natural antibacterial properties.
3,000 families, one shared craft
Around 3,000 families — more than 20,000 people — make their living from artisanal block print in the Jaipur region. They are the direct inheritors of a tradition that has been passed down within the same communities, the same villages, sometimes the same workshops since the Mughal era. Among these artisans, knowledge of pigments is not learned from books: it is transmitted through practice, from father to son, from mother to daughter.
Each family guards its own recipes — the exact proportions of an indigo bath, the optimal steeping time for an iron mordant, the ideal consistency of a dabu paste. These recipes are not written down. They are part of an oral and gestural heritage that makes each workshop unique.
At Kirane, we work directly with these artisans in our Villa Kirane workshop in Jaipur. Every piece bears the mark of this expertise — in the regularity of a stamped pattern, in the depth of an indigo blue, in the unique crackle of a dabu print. Discover also the dedication of the women of Villa Kirane, who contribute every day to keeping this craft alive.
Preserving natural colours
Natural pigments are resilient, but they do appreciate a little care. A slight release of colour during the first washes is normal — it is the unfixed surplus pigment coming away, and it is precisely the proof that your textiles are dyed with genuine natural pigments. After two or three washes, the colours stabilise and strengthen.
Wash at 30°C maximum. Add a tablespoon of white vinegar per litre of water during the first two washes to set the pigments. Always dry in the shade — direct UV sunlight is the number one enemy of natural dyes. Avoid any bleaching product. For a complete guide, see our article on caring for block print household linen.
Explore our collections dyed with natural pigments: Cushions · Tablecloths · Throws · Sofa Covers
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