Afghanistan · Natural Dyeing / Material Preparation
رنگرزی (Rangrazi — Dari: "dyeing")
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 lustrous pile when blended — is hand-sheared each April and September, hand-sorted, hand-spun, and then colored using an entirely plant-based dye system whose defining technical element is the mordant: a fermented mixture of alum and barley sourdough that the yarn is boiled in for five to ten days before the actual coloring agent — most commonly madder root, whose bark and inner core yield distinct pink-rose and reddish-brown shades, alongside walnut skin, pomegranate, and wheat straw — is added. Individual workshops and dye families closely guard their specific recipes. Documented by the Turquoise Mountain Foundation across Afghan carpet workshops, including a warehouse in Mazar-e-Sharif, Balkh Province.
Risk level: Endangered · Not independently UNESCO-listed; underlies techniques on Afghanistan's national ICH list for hand-knotted carpet weaving
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