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Paper short abstract:

Practicing the craft of natural textile dyeing allows for a more successful study of the meaning of colors, providing knowledge about obtaining a particular color, the color palette, etc. The author has used her dyer knowledge to study various ethnographic sources of the 18th to 20th centuries.

Paper long abstract:

One of the areas of traditional craft, which also includes a great potential for creativity, is textile dyeing with natural dyes. It is still practiced in Latvia today. Until the middle of the 19th century, it was the only way to obtain colored clothes and other textiles. Later, in war and other crises, these skills became a creative way to maintain the quality of everyday life. Nowadays, practicing the craft of dyeing is not only a creative self-expression and a field of traditional crafts, but it allows for a more successful study of the meaning of colors, providing undocumented, accurate knowledge about the complexity or simplicity of obtaining a particular color, the available color palette, etc. Only by being familiar with the dyeing process is it possible to adequately evaluate the written sources of different periods about textile colors, including interpreting the records of ancient technologies and dyeing methods.

The report will give an insight into the development of the tradition of dyeing textiles with natural dyes in Latvia, paying attention to the conditions (crises) that contributed to the preservation of this tradition in the long term. Also, with examples of individual cases, it will be shown how practical dyeing skills are used in research work. The author of the paper has used her dyer knowledge and skills to study various ethnographic sources of the 18th to 20th centuries.