IN CONVERSATION
Naturally beautiful
KAUSALYA SANTHANAM
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French archaeological textile specialist, Dominique Cardon, has a lot to say about the history and promotion of natural dyes.
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Cardon makes a case for exploring new sources of natural colorants — recycling waste products of the food industry; through branches, barks "anything that falls"; and through bacteria and yeast culture.
PHOTO: P.V. Sivakumar
Formidable expertise: Dominique Cardon.
TALK to Dominique Cardon for an hour. And you feel you are travelling across centuries and continents. The scientist-historian has formidable expertise in the field of ancient textiles and natural dyes. One of two archaeological textile specialists in France, her research has been wide ranging — from the Chinese to the Peruvian, from Neolithic textiles to the creation of a contemporary idiom. She has studied the dyes of medieval Europe, relic wrappings from mountain churches in the south of France, textiles from Roman sites on caravan roads in Egypt, natural dyes in silk and vegetable fibre in Madagascar, Maori dyes...
Cardon was in Hyderabad recently in her capacity as overall coordinator of the International Symposium-Workshop on Natural Dyes organised by the UNESCO and the Crafts Council of India (craftscouncilindia.org or unesco.org/culture/craft). She worked for three years, along with other experts, to organise "naturally... " the six day event that brought 800 delegates including 200 craftspersons from 65 countries together at the Shilpa Kala Vedika .
World heritage
"The use of natural dyes is a part of the world heritage. The research being done in India in the field is very impressive — new colorants, processes and applications have been discovered during recent research," says Cardon, Scientific Researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Lyons, France
Cardon is also the President of the Natural Colorants Federation in Europe and a member of the international group of researchers into dyes in history and archaeology. She can read more than a dozen languages, among them medieval Occitan, Catalan, Toscan, Genoese and Venetian, and has authored several books on natural dyes. The most recent among them, The World of Natural Dyes, received the Art and Science of Colour Prize — the Bronze award — of the L'Oreal Foundation in 2003, which led UNESCO to choose her as the overall coordinator of the symposium.
Derived from plants, minerals and animals, natural dyes — with their lovely, mellow colours — are non-polluting and non-allergenic. "Natural dyes have a unique beauty and this can be explained scientifically," says Cardon. "For instance, there is not just one colouring molecule but 19 different ones in madder, ranging from orange to purple. People prefer chemical dyes because they are easier and cheaper to use." A vision of the world of natural dyes renewed both by the awareness of the threats on natural environments and the advances in recent interdisciplinary research — this is what the symposium proposed, she points out. It also sought to build linkages between traditional practitioners and scientific technology.
"The history and archaeology of textile techniques was a pioneer field of research when I entered it in 1969," says Cardon. "On a visit to Peru in 1971 to study pre-Columbian textiles, I discovered dyers working with indigo and cochineal. They were using techniques that had been followed for centuries in the region."
Historical dye recipes
When she took up the post of Professor in the University of Dublin, Irish tweeds, dyed naturally with lichens, caught her attention. Soon after returning to France, she got married and her husband bought a hamlet north of Montpellier, in the mountains.
"The same lichens grew in this part of France as in Ireland and I began to explore historical dye recipes. France had a great tradition of natural dyeing for industry in the 18th century. Dyers would make sample books and recipes." Successfully experimenting to reconstitute ancient dyes, Cardon began using them to colour modern textiles. She made naturally dyed textiles for high fashion — for Chanel — for two years. "I then became full time director of CNRS", she says.
After having worked on an archaeological mission in Egypt, excavating thousands of fragments of Roman textiles some years ago, Cardon is now working on a Franco-Chinese archaeological mission in Xinjiang. "In this museum in Xinjiang, there are mummified figures dressed from head to toe."
Future of natural dyes
She carefully weighs the question of "What is the future for natural dyes?"
"As UNESCO representative, it is my role to encourage the movement and propose suggestions and ideas on the promotion of natural dyes. As a scientist, I have to add that we need to have more research into some aspects, for natural dyes to be revived and used on an industrial scale. We have to think in terms of sustainability of natural resources; we don't want to jeopardise the future of natural dyes by making statements that are not true or can be easily countered," she says.
Cardon makes a case for exploring new sources of natural colorants — recycling waste products of the food industry; through branches, barks "anything that falls"; and through bacteria and yeast culture. "Throughout the world, a great deal of progress is being made to use natural dyes on a big scale with attempts to make it economically viable as well."
Cardon adds there is great demand for natural dyes in the West. But she wishes the media would play a greater role in promoting their use.
"One of the aims of UNESCO through this symposium is that it should lead to a federation of associations concerned with the protection of the authenticity of natural colorants. The aim is to protect the user and the producer from falsification. We are planning to work towards certification standards — like the labels for eco fibres. Chemical dyes may be easier and cheaper to use. But if we calculate the environmental hazards, then the costs of natural and chemical dyes work out equal," says Cardon in the final word for the natural and beautiful.
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