Our Dyes
The colour comes last, and it lasts.
How we colour our cloth.
A block print is only as good as the dye that holds it. The carving can be precise, the printing even, the cotton fine — but if the colour fades in the first wash or bleeds onto everything around it, none of the rest matters. This page explains what we colour our cloth with, why some pieces cost more than others because of it, and what to expect from natural dye in your own home.
Two kinds of dye.
Most of our catalogue is coloured with one of two dye families. We tell you which on the product page.
Pigment dyes.
Water-based pigment dyes are what we use for most everyday cotton printing — bedsheets, cushion covers, table linen in our brighter and more consistent colourways. They are mixed fresh each morning before printing. Pigment sits on the surface of the cotton, which makes it reliable, colour-consistent across a long run, and stable in the wash after the first set. It is the workhorse of block printing, and there is nothing lesser about it — most of the hand-printed cotton you have ever seen was pigment-printed.
Natural dyes.
For our older motifs and more labour-intensive pieces, we use natural dyes — indigo, madder root, and pomegranate. These are slower, more variable, and more expensive to work with, and they produce colour with a depth and a slight irregularity that pigment cannot copy. A naturally dyed indigo will not be identical from batch to batch. That is the nature of the material, not a fault in the piece.
The three natural colours we use most.
Three real dye pots from our workshop — indigo, madder, and a deep madder-brown vat.
Indigo.
The slowest of all. Indigo ferments in clay vats over about five days, using a starter culture the workshop has kept alive for decades. Cloth dipped in indigo comes out green and turns blue in front of you as it meets the air — the oxidation is the colour forming. Depth comes from repeated dips, not from a stronger vat: a pale indigo is dipped once or twice, a deep indigo many times. It is the colour our brand is quietly built around.
Madder.
A red-to-rust dye boiled from the root of the madder plant over several hours, then strained. Madder gives the warm brick reds and soft terracotta tones in our two-colour Bagru pieces. Like all root dyes, its exact shade shifts with the water, the season, and the length of the boil.
Pomegranate.
Pomegranate rind yields a soft yellow-to-ochre and is often used as a base or mordant alongside other colours. It is gentle, earthy, and characteristic of the older Rajasthani palette.
What to expect at home.
Natural and hand-set dyes behave differently from factory-fixed colour. Knowing this in advance is the difference between delight and disappointment.
- The first wash will release some colour. Indigo and madder especially. Wash a new piece separately the first time, in cold water with half a cup of white vinegar. After that, the dye is set. Full instructions are on the Care Guide.
- Slight variation is normal. Two indigo pieces from two batches will not be pixel-identical. That is the material, not a defect.
- Keep it out of harsh direct sun for drying. Natural dye is happiest dried in shade. Prolonged direct sun can lighten it over time.
What we don't claim yet.
We want to be straight about this, because the dye industry is full of vague reassurance. We are working toward AZO-free supplier declarations and independent lab testing for the dyes we use regularly. Until that documentation is in our hands, we do not put an “AZO-free” claim on our products or our packaging. When we have the test results, we will say exactly what was tested and what it showed — on this page.
If you have specific dye sensitivities, write to us at hello@sutracraft.com before ordering and we will tell you honestly what a given piece is coloured with.