turmeric/manjal dye

probably the easiest of all the dyes is turmeric. especially in india, where it is so abundant. turmeric is one of the few dyes that you can prepare in a cold bath - no energy is needed to heat the dye stuff. we simply put 100 grams of turmeric powder in this bucket of cold water. used rubber bands to create resist patterns and then dropped our cloth inside. we left our fabric overnight, just to soak in the color. no mordant used on this cotton, which was actually an old veshti!

curry leaves and turmeric: a very indian natural dye

today i finally got my hands into some natural dye work. i thought i would try using curry leaves, as we have an abundance of them growing at home amended with several left over stems from the market. the curry plant is native to india and is a tree Murraya koenigii. it is a mainstay of south indian cooking flavoring rasam, sambar, pooriyal, pongal, etc... etc.. etc...

this was my first test dye in india, so i was a little nervous not having my usual tools with me.

i am in chidambaram and didn't quite know how to procure alum, the mordant i most commonly use for cotton, so instead i tested out giving the cloth a nice soak in some warm salt water. i found a beautiful handwoven white towel for my experiment.

after soaking the fabric for a bit in the warm salt water i started boiling up a nice big bunch of dried curry leaves. i let the leaves boil over a low heat for about 40 minutes before adding my cloth. afterwards i let it boil for about 1 hour. the dye bath was a beautiful though faint golden copper color. just to give it a rich yellow tinge i decided to add one spoonful of turmeric powder. instantly the colors merged - i let it simmer for about 20 more minutes before removing it form the heat, rinsing my cloth and hanging it to dry!

beautiful colors from nature. just what i needed to get inspired and excited for this week's natural dye workshop that i am leading in chennai - hope to have goods pics from that to share.

thanks for visiting. d

Pongal: A harvest Festival

Happy pongal from Chidambaram. Pongal is a harvest festival celebrating the abundance of crops and giving thanks to the sun god and cows for food and milk. Preparations for Pongal have been in full swing. Yesterday we headed to the market to get beautiful fresh purple sugar cane stalks to decorate our home with and eat after the festivities, fresh ginger and turmeric with their stems and leaves to use to prepare the pongal with. Pongal literally means to boil over, and in the morning on Pongal day, a dish called "chakara pongal" - a sweetened rice pudding is prepared, as the milk boils over the pot adorned with the turmeric and ginger leaves, we chant " pongal - o - pongal" boil boil!

special kolams are made to decorate the outside of the house.

a simple recipe for my version of chakara pongal:

Ingredients:

handful of cashews

1 tsp. freshly ground cardamom powder

1 tbsp. jaggery

1/2 cup rice

2 cups milk

ghee

1. heat the ghee in a pot and add the cashews, once browned add the rice and saute a bit until ric is clear

2. add the jaggery, milk and cardamom

3. stir constantly to avoid the bottom from burning

4. chant pongal - o-pongal!

5. enjoy