The dyeing of the Berber carpet is an art in itself. And there are as many different ways to paint it in an eye-catching color as there are carpet manufacturers. However, the starting point is very similar whatever the method, you must first dye the yarn that will be used to weave the beautiful carpet.
Some methods can achieve one color in one day, while other colors can take up to four days. In the past, a dye like indigo, for example, could last up to two weeks.
What is beyond doubt is that dyeing with natural substances gives the yarn a natural sheen that is difficult to surpass.
To obtain different colors, we use a number of substances with coloring power, from the plant and animal world.
BLUE for example is obtained from the indigo tree, which is a leguminous plant.
RED is obtained from madder root, kermes and cochineal.
For the YELLOW, we will have to rely on saffron, mignonette, vine leaves or pomegranate.
On the other hand for the GREEN dye, it is obtained from a mixture of indigo + vine leaf, or from the peel of pomegranate, or even by mixing blue and yellow. As for BROWN, it is obtained from walnut stain or oak bark.
The ORANGE color is obtained by mixing henna and madder root. BEIGE is obtained from walnut stain, or pomegranate peel, and BLACK is easily obtained by mixing indigo and henna. In addition to these colors, white, black and gray are obtained by using wool which naturally has this color.
To make magnificent Berber rugs, other plants are used according to the region of each woman weaver.
We can cite WOOD FROM BRAZIL, used for red, purple and black.
There is also the CASHOUTIER used for brown tones, RHUBARB, used for yellow and coppery colors or even YELLOWWOOD or virgilier, used for yellow tints.
