The Depository · Browse · Dyeing & Surface Design
78 techniques from 39 countries; by risk level: 14 critically endangered, 33 endangered, 22 vulnerable, 5 stable, 3 thriving. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The raw-material chain that underlies Afghanistan's hand-knotted carpet traditions (Herat, Maimana, and others): Karakul sheep wool — prized for its dual fleece of a long, coarse outer layer and a softer inner layer that together give a…
The weaving of ponchos on a vertical loom using guarda atada ('tied border'), a warp-resist ikat technique in which sections of the warp thread are bound with strips of cloth and coated with starch before dyeing, producing precise…
The hand-spinning, natural-dyeing, and weaving of sheep's wool on the telar de estaca — a criollo loom whose main support poles are implanted directly into the ground rather than built as a portable frame — practiced by generations of…
The weaving, hand-dyeing, and wax-resist stamped decoration of kelaghayi, Azerbaijan's traditional square silk headscarf, produced today in only two historic Silk Road centers, Sheki and the village of Basgal, using vegetable-derived dyes…
A distinctively Bahamian adaptation of Indonesian wax-resist batik, made entirely by hand on Andros Island using stamps carved from locally harvested sea sponge — themselves shaped into organic Bahamian motifs (conch shells, hibiscus…
The production of ndop, an indigo resist-dyed prestige cloth central to the political and spiritual life of the Bamileke, Bamum, and Bamenda peoples of Cameroon's Western Grassfields, historically manufactured through an unusually…
Pysanka is the Ukrainian wax-resist decorated Easter egg tradition, carried to Canada by the first wave of Ukrainian immigrants beginning in 1891 and sustained continuously since as one of the defining folk arts of the Canadian Prairie…
Beijing carved lacquerware (雕漆 diaoqi) is the most technically demanding Chinese lacquer tradition — distinct from Vietnamese son mai (CRAFT-0278) and Korean ottchil (CRAFT-0020) in its approach.
Buyi batik (布依族蜡染) is the wax-resist dyeing tradition of the Buyi people of Guizhou province — one of the oldest continuously practiced batik traditions in the world, predating the more widely known Javanese batik (CRAFT-0133) in…
Dali Bai tie-dye (白族扎染) from Zhouzhen village near Dali, Yunnan is one of the most commercially successful ethnic minority crafts in China — and simultaneously one of the most technically nuanced.
Zharan (扎染) is the Bai ethnic minority tie-dye tradition centered in Zhouzhen village, Dali, Yunnan province — one of the few places in China where the complete traditional process survives, from hand-stitching resist patterns to natural…
Yunnan batik (蜡染 là rǎn) is the wax-resist dyeing tradition practiced by multiple ethnic minorities of Yunnan province — primarily the Buyi (布依族), Shui (水族), and Bai (白族) peoples — and constitutes a distinct tradition from the Dali tie-dye…
A complete field-to-cloth backstrap-loom weaving tradition of the Boruca people, who grow their own white and brown cotton, hand-spin it on drop spindles, dye it with local plant sources and, remarkably, with the secretion of the Pacific…
The spinning, sun-drying, resist-tying, dyeing, and backstrap-loom weaving of wool into macanas — traditional Ecuadorian shawls decorated in the ikat technique, in which thread is bound before dyeing to create the finished cloth's…
The harvesting, drying, cutting, carving, polishing, and dyeing of tagua palm seeds (Phytelephas aequatorialis) — nicknamed 'vegetable ivory' for their hard, shiny, ivory-white texture — into figurines, jewelry, buttons, and decorative…
The fermentation-based extraction and application of natural indigo dye from the xiquilite plant (Indigofera suffruticosa), once El Salvador's dominant export as "Blue Gold" and, per Spanish colonial-era accounts, notably richer and darker…
The dyeing of silk yarn and fabric in Lyon — a tradition as old as the weaving itself, carried out in the teintureries of the Croix-Rousse and riverside workshops.
The flat-table screen printing of silk fabric in Lyon — a tradition that developed alongside weaving as an alternative and complementary method of decorating silk.
The hand-carving of calabash-gourd stamps and their application in dark, bark-based dye to print symbolic Adinkra motifs onto woven cotton cloth, practiced by the Asante people of Ghana and centered on the village of Ntonso, northeast of…
A twenty-five-step resist-dyeing technique in which cotton warp (and, for the most complex double-jaspe pieces, weft) threads are tied into precise bundles and dyed before weaving, so that patterns — figures, animals, butterflies, flowers…
A complete, from-scratch textile tradition unique among Lake Atitlán's weaving villages, in which Tz'utujil Maya women grow their own organic cotton in four native colors, hand-harvest and hand-spin it (traditionally spun up to seven times…
Ajrakh is a multi-step resist and mordant block-printing tradition practiced in Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur villages of Kutch, Gujarat, by the Khatri community (Muslim), producing deeply geometric indigo-and-madder printed cloth of great visual…
Dyeing handloom cloth with extracts of Ayurvedic medicinal plants, so that the dye bath is also, in the makers' account, a remedy.
Bagh block printing is a natural-dye hand block printing tradition from the village of Bagh, Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, practiced almost exclusively by the Khatri community of Muslim artisans.
Bagru block printing is a natural dye and resist-printing tradition practiced by the Chhipa community in Bagru village, near Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Bandhani is a resist-dyeing technique in which small sections of fabric are tightly bound with thread before immersion in dye, creating intricate patterns of tiny undyed dots on a colored ground.
Varak (also waraq) is the Rajasthani craft of beating pure gold or silver into paper-thin leaf and hand-block-printing it onto textiles.
Kalamkari (Persian: kalam = pen; kari = work) is a hand-drawn and naturally dyed textile painting tradition practiced in two distinct centers in Andhra Pradesh: Srikalahasti (pen tradition) and Machilipatnam (block-print tradition).
Kotpad handloom is a cotton handloom weaving tradition from Kotpad block, Koraput district, Odisha — on the Chhattisgarh border — practiced by the Mirgan community for the Bondo, Kondh, and Gadaba tribal communities.
Batik Cap is the stamp-printed variant of Indonesian batik, using hand-made copper stamps (cap) to apply wax to cloth in a repeated pattern, replacing the freehand canting of Batik Tulis.
Batik Fractal is a contemporary innovation originating from Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) that uses fractal mathematics and computational design tools to generate new batik patterns — specifically patterns that replicate the…
Batik Pesisir (coastal batik) encompasses the distinct batik traditions of Java's north coast trading cities — Pekalongan, Cirebon, Lasem, Tuban, and Madura — which developed differently from the refined court batik of Yogyakarta and Solo.
Batik Tulis is the most refined form of Indonesian batik — a wax-resist dyeing technique in which hot liquid wax is applied freehand to cloth using a canting (a small copper-spouted tool) to draw fine lines and dots that resist the dye.
Hand-drawn wax-resist batik made not on imported cloth but on silk that is hand-spun and hand-woven in Indonesia for the purpose, so that one workshop controls the whole chain from yarn to finished design.
Kain Jumputan is the silk tie-dye tradition of Palembang — produced on fine silk or georgette by gathering and binding small sections of cloth with thread before dye immersion, then unbinding to reveal the characteristic circular resist…
Sasirangan is the traditional stitch-resist dyed cloth of the Banjar people of South Kalimantan — distinct from tie-dye (Jumputan) in that the resist is created by running-stitch gathering along sewn lines (not tied binding), producing the…
The hand-printing of patterned cotton textiles using carved wooden stamps and natural dyes, an art whose exact origins remain uncertain but which art historian Arthur Pope has traced in Iran back to the Ghaznavid era, reaching its golden…
Edo Komon (江戸小紋 — Edo fine pattern) is the stencil-resist dyeing tradition of Tokyo — producing extremely fine all-over geometric patterns on silk or cotton fabric using hand-cut paper stencils (型紙 katagami) and rice-paste resist.
Awa-Ai (阿波藍) is the Japanese fermentation indigo tradition of Tokushima Prefecture (formerly Awa Province) — Japan's historic indigo center — producing sukumo (宿木 — composted indigo leaf), the fermented indigo pigment source used in…
Kaga Yuzen (加賀友禅) is the regional Yuzen dyeing tradition of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture — distinct from Kyoto Yuzen (CRAFT-0459) in five specific ways codified as the 'five secrets of Kaga Yuzen' (加賀五彩 Kaga gosaï): the color palette…
Kumejima tsumugi (久米島紬) is a hand-woven silk pongee from Kumejima, west of Okinawa Island, and is often called the root of Japanese tsumugi.
Kyō-Kanoko (京鹿の子絞り — Kyoto fawn-spot resist dyeing) is the most labor-intensive resist-dyeing tradition in the world — producing the characteristic white dot pattern on dyed silk by individually binding each dot (each dot requires one…
Kyō-Yūzen (京友禅) is Japan's supreme textile painting tradition — developed in Kyoto in the early Edo period (attributed to fan painter Miyazaki Yūzensai, c.1680) and now designating a multi-stage technique combining starch-paste resist (糊置き…
Bingata (紅型 — crimson/abundant pattern) is the royal court textile dyeing tradition of Okinawa (formerly Ryukyu Kingdom) — the only Japanese regional dyeing tradition with a distinct non-mainland origin: Bingata reflects the Ryukyu…
Ōshima Tsumugi (大島紬) is the luxury silk weaving tradition of Amami Oshima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture — the most expensive silk textile in Japan and one of the most technically complex textile traditions in the world.
Tsutsugaki (筒描き — 'tube drawing') is the freehand resist paste drawing tradition of Japan — the rural counterpart to the court Yuzen tradition (CRAFT-0459), using the same rice-paste cone (nori-tsutsu) technique but applied freehand on…
Ūji Zome (ウージ染め) is dyeing and weaving with sugarcane (ūji in Okinawan), developed in Tomigusuku as a village-revitalization project of the local Chamber of Commerce in 1989.
Lao mtmee (ມັດໝີ່ — 'tied thread') is the weft ikat silk weaving tradition of the Lao Loum people of the Mekong Valley — the defining luxury textile of Laos and one of the most technically demanding ikat traditions in Southeast Asia.
Johor Batik is the southern Malaysian batik tradition shaped by the large Javanese and Sumatran immigrant communities who settled in Johor during the 19th–20th century colonial period.
Malaysian Batik is the wax-resist dyeing tradition of the East Coast — practiced primarily in Kelantan, Terengganu, and Pahang — and is distinct from Javanese batik (CRAFT-0133) in several fundamental ways.
Wax-resist batik drawn with a canting: the design is traced in hot wax, and the wax-resisted cloth is then colored by hand.
Hand-drawn (canting) and hand-block-printed (carved stamp) batik practiced side by side and sometimes combined on the same piece, with pattern and color carried through to both sides of the cloth, according to the producer's own materials…
The dyeing of hand-woven cotton cloth using fermented river mud by Bamana women of Mali, producing the country's most internationally recognized textile tradition.
A backstrap-loom weaving tradition producing Mexico's most iconic shawl, in which silk or cotton thread is first tied and grouped in bundles using the ikat (locally called amarrado or jaspe) resist-dye technique to create the finished…
The Gurung people of Lamjung and Gorkha districts in central Nepal maintain a distinctive double tradition: a wool and cotton pattern weaving tradition and a lokta paper dyeing practice used for ceremonial packaging and religious offerings.
The resist-dyeing of cotton cloth in indigo by Yoruba women of southwestern Nigeria, using tying, stitching, and starch-paste techniques to create white-on-blue geometric and symbolic patterns.
The large-scale immersion dyeing of cotton cloth in deep indigo using earthen ground-pits at Kofar Mata in Kano, northern Nigeria, among the oldest continuously operating dye sites in West Africa, dating back over 500 years.
Ajrak (اجرک) is the Sindhi resist-print and natural dye tradition — producing the deep red and indigo blue geometric pattern cloth that is the defining textile of Sindhi identity.
The layered wax-resist decoration of emptied eggshells, a Romanian art form reaching its most elaborate expression in Bucovina, where an artisan applies molten beeswax with a fine stylus, dyes the shell, and repeats the cycle from the…
Wax-resist batik in the traditional Indonesian manner, hand-produced on quality cotton, including exclusive sea island cotton, on Saint Kitts.
The pan-Balkans natural plant dyeing tradition — the knowledge of the specific Balkan dye plants (madder/crvena bojadisava, woad/šaid, walnut/orah, sumac/ruj, pomegranate/šipak, iron water/gvožđuša) used across all Balkan textile…
The tie-dyeing, stitch-resist, and wax-block-stamping of cotton cloth using natural indigo and kola-nut dye, practiced predominantly by Temne women centered on Makeni, northern Sierra Leone.
The Slovak modrotlač (blue print) tradition — the production of the distinctive Slovak resist-printed indigo textile whose characteristic white geometric and floral patterns on deep indigo blue ground are produced by applying a resist…
The wax-resist dyeing of cloth into vibrant, layered patterned textiles, repeatedly cited among Sri Lanka's most iconic traditional crafts and closing a significant gap in the archive's existing 12-record Sri Lanka collection, none of…
Lanshan (藍衫 — 'blue garment') is the Hakka Chinese community's defining textile tradition in Taiwan — the deep indigo-dyed cotton or ramie cloth worn as the daily and ceremonial garment of Hakka women in Hsinchu, Miaoli, and Taoyuan…
The block-printing and hand-stamping of vivid, proverb-bearing cotton cloth by Swahili coast communities of Zanzibar, Mombasa, and the wider East African coast, structured around three fixed compositional elements: a pindo (decorative…
Mo Hom is the traditional indigo-dyed cotton cloth of Phrae province in northern Thailand — one of the few surviving natural indigo dyeing traditions in Southeast Asia.
Phuket Peranakan Batik is the wax-resist dyeing tradition of the Baba-Nyonya (Peranakan Chinese) community of Phuket and Phang-nga provinces — distinct from both the Islamic-Malay Southern Thai Batik (CRAFT-0024) and Javanese batik…
Hand-painted wax-resist fabric technique of southern Thailand, distinguishable from Javanese batik by its emphasis on hand-painting (rather than canting drawing alone) and a distinct pattern vocabulary of marine life, tropical flora, and…
A supplementary record for the Anatolian natural textile dyeing tradition that underpins the carpet, kilim, keçe, and Bursa silk traditions documented across both Turkish batches — the natural dye knowledge (kök boya) that gives the…
Turkmen red (Гызыл боя — red dye) is the specific madder-based dye that produces the characteristic warm burgundy-red of authentic Turkmen carpets — a color that cannot be replicated with madder grown outside the specific alkaline Karakum…
The natural dyeing tradition of the Outer Hebrides — the use of island plants (crotal lichen, heather, iris root, weld) to dye Harris Tweed wool before spinning and weaving, producing the characteristic muted, complex color palette that…
The waulking tradition of the Outer Hebrides — the communal wet-finishing of Harris Tweed by rhythmic pounding against a waulking board by a group of women singing waulking songs (òrain luaidh) to maintain the rhythm of the process, the…
A fermentation-based natural dye process extracting deep blue pigment from Indigofera suffruticosa leaves, historically one of colonial South Carolina's most valuable export crops (grown and processed almost entirely through enslaved…
Contact printing (eco-print) on natural fiber: leaves, roots and flowers, together with metal oxidation, are pressed against the cloth to stain and mark it directly rather than dyeing it by immersion, so that each garment comes out unique.
Wool yarn hand-dyed in large iron kettles over wood fires, then hand-knitted and woven by rural women in Uruguay's village cooperatives.
The weaving of cotton textiles in Yemen's Tihamah coastal plain, a tradition with deep historical roots: cotton is believed to have been first cultivated in southwest Arabia around 3000 BCE, and historical sources document that Sana'a,…
The preparation of al-neilah, natural indigo dye, an ancient Yemeni tradition dating back at least to the first millennium BCE, used to color cloth and other textile materials with a characteristic dark blue hue.