Obtaining Purple Colour and Determination of Fastness of Silk Fabrics Dyed with Madder and Kosinil

Abstract

Today, concepts such as return to nature, return to essence, environmentally friendly dyes, healthy living and sustainable fashion are among the terms that we hear frequently and have an important place in our lives. In our daily lives, where a fast and technological lifestyle is dominant, the tendency towards healthy and natural preferences, especially in basic elements such as textile products and food, has increased significantly. Natural dye sources are diverse and various sources such as leaves, branches, roots of plants, fungi, lichens, insect extracts and secretion from the hypoxia gland of snails stand out as natural components that provide colour pigments for humans. These sources offer rich and diverse options in terms of colour pigments, offering alternatives in line with natural and healthy living trends.

In 1856, Sir William Henry Perkin’s discovery of synthetic dyestuff added a new perspective to the world of colour. Althought the purple colour in particular was considered valuable in textile dyeing, it was difficult to obtain due to the limitation of natural resources. After the 2000s, environmentally friendly and sustainable production trends have caused natural dyestuffs to gain importance again. This is a development related to the increasing demand for safe and environmentally friendly dyeing methods against toxic effects and represents an important turn in the history of colour.

In this study, silk fabrics were dyed with the plant origin root dye plant, insect origin koşinil, which is used to obtain purple colour. After dyeing, washing, wet dry rubbing and light fastness tests of the fabrics were carried out and their usability in the sectoral sense was also revealed. Among these dyestuff sources, the highest fastness values were determined as root dye and then as kosinil. Firstly, 100 pieces of test fabrics were dyed and then 300 pieces were dyed with large fabrics. The literature on these dyestuff sources in the historical process was scanned and applications were carried out based on the recipes given here. A method was developed and a recipe was determined.