Types of Natural Rug Dyes

Explore the rich world of natural rug dyes and how they bring handmade rugs to life. From madder roots to insects and indigo leaves, natural dyes tell stories as vivid as the colours they create.

A World of Colour, Sourced From Nature

For centuries, artisans have dyed hand-knotted rugs using materials found in the natural world. While often referred to as vegetable dyes, the term is a bit misleading — many are made not just from plants but from insects too.

Let’s take a closer look at the most commonly used natural dyes in traditional rug making, from vibrant reds to inky blues and earthy golds.

Red Dyes

Madder

Extracted from the roots of the Rubia tinctorum plant, madder produces a spectrum of reds, from rich orange to deep rust. As a mordant dye, it bonds to wool after pre-treatment with solutions like alum or iron salts — affecting the final colour and tone. Madder is highly colourfast and was once so potent it could stain human bones, as discovered by 18th-century British surgeon John Belchier.

It remains the most iconic of all natural rug dyes — immortalised in Brian Murphy’s book The Root of Wild Madder.

Cochineal

This striking crimson dye is made from the cochineal insect, a parasitic scale insect harvested from cactus plants in Mexico and South America. The dried bodies are ground to powder, releasing carminic acid. When dyed with different mordants and pH levels, cochineal can produce a range of purples and bluish-reds distinct from madder.

Imported to Persia and Anatolia by the 16th century, cochineal became a prized pigment in rug weaving.

Kermes

Used since the Neolithic era, kermes dye is made from the Kermes vermilio insect, native to the Mediterranean. It yields a brilliant crimson, but its use declined by the 1600s when cochineal’s higher potency made it more economical.

Lac

Derived from the lac insect, which secretes resin onto tree bark in Southeast Asia, lac produces a cool red dye. The crude shellac is processed to extract the pigment, which was used for centuries on both wool and silk.

Blue Dye

Indigo

The deep, celestial blues of many rugs come from Indigofera tinctoria, a plant with a dyeing legacy that spans cultures and millennia — from ancient Rome to Japan’s Edo period.

Indigo is a vat dye — insoluble in water and requiring a fermentation and oxidation process. No mordant is needed. The yarns are dipped in a yellow-green dye bath, and as they oxidise, they turn deep blue. It’s an extraordinary transformation to witness.

Indigo’s visual texture, known as abrash, and its excellent lightfastness make it a collector’s favourite.

Yellow Dyes

Natural yellow dyes are typically made from plants:

Weld (Reseda luteola) produces a bright, intense yellow.
Dyer’s mulberry (Maclura tinctoria) creates golds, khakis, and green-yellows.
Other sources include wild chamomile, pomegranate rind, sumac leaves, and turmeric.

Yellow shades often form the base for greens and salmons, when overdyed or faded in sunlight.

Black Dyes

Creating a strong, lasting black is difficult with natural dyes.

Tribal weavers often used iron salts and oak galls. These create a dark hue but can degrade wool over time — explaining why antique rugs sometimes show visible corrosion in black areas.
Alternative methods include overdying dark yarns with indigo to achieve a safer, longer-lasting black.

Beyond Primary Colours

Greens, purples, salmon pinks — these require true dye mastery. Many are achieved through layering dyes or sun fading. And while some formulas are shared openly, others remain closely guarded secrets, passed down through generations of rug dyers.

Natural vs Synthetic Dyes

While synthetic dyes dominate the modern rug market for cost and consistency, natural dyes continue to be preferred by collectors and connoisseurs for their depth, nuance, and ageing beauty.

The irregularities in natural dyeing — the variations in tone, known as abrash — are part of what makes each hand-knotted rug truly one of a kind.

See the Colours of Craftsmanship

At The Persian Rug Cleaning Company, we respect the legacy of natural dyeing. We’ve spent decades studying how dyes behave during cleaning — from fugitive reds to bleeding blacks — and we adjust our approach for every rug to preserve its colour, contrast, and history.

If you’re unsure about the dyes in your rug, or if you’ve noticed fading or bleeding, we’re here to help. Our experience with hand-knotted Persian, Oriental, and tribal rugs means we can safely test, wash, and protect even the most delicate natural dyes.