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Paper short abstract:

Dyeing with natural colorants is one of the traditional Latvian skills. A survey carried out in 2016-2017 among people interested in this field in Latvia has shown that the use of written sources plays an important role in practising natural dyeing, along with direct inheritance.

Paper long abstract:

Dyeing with natural colorants is practised in Latvia also today. Discovery synthetic dyes more than 160 years ago created a rapid disappearing of this traditional knowledge. However, the actuality of this knowledge from time to time renewed due to various circumstances. In time of the Second World War, during the collapse of economic life, when natural dyes were used for clothing colour dyeing, the number of publications on dyeing with plants in the Latvian press significantly increased. The growth of interest in dyeing with natural colorants during the Soviet occupation period partly was the result of the publications (articles in magazines and book on dyeing with plant dyes) by the dyer Ilga Madre and her workshops activities. In order to study the tradition of the use of natural dyes today, a survey was conducted in 2016 and 2017 among dyeing workshop participants in different part of Latvia. The survey has shown that the use of written sources plays an important role in practising natural dyeing, along with direct inheritance. Due to the fact that only a small part of the users of natural dyes in Latvia participated in the dyeing workshops and in the survey, the correspondence of Latvian natural dyers available on the social network will be also analysed. Various sources are used to preserve and develop the dyeing skills - both direct observation/oral tradition and written/visual materials.