Praxis and Paradox: The Culture of Natural Dyes in Britain, 1750-1900

• Published in: Textile : the journal of cloth and culture Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 6 - 26
• Main Author: Casselman, Karen Diadick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 01.03.2009; Oxford International Publishers Ltd. Dba Berg Publishers
• Subjects: chemical dyes; Colour; Craft; Dyeing techniques; Dyes and dyeing; Economic anthropology; Gender; History; Material culture; natural dyes; Technology; Textile art; Textile fibers; textile history; Textiles; United Kingdom; Visual culture; United Kingdom

This article offers an analysis of natural dyes as a means to explicate inherent paradoxes within the subject. One is that natural dyes are not entirely "natural." The reverse is actually the case, for natural dyes were often added to chemical colors by nineteenth-century industrial dyers....