THE PROJECT

As part of The Rockfield Centre Heritage theme - Oban Heritage of Colours explores the dyeing and growing heritage of Oban, and the origins and heritage of the dye plants growing in our own Dye Garden created in 2021 at The Rockfield Centre, Oban.

Oban Heritage of Colours is a research based collaboration project undertaken by Naoko Mabon (curator) ,Deborah Gray (textile artist) and supported by our heritage volunteers which is presented below as an interactive digital map of historical growing sites, and a collection of writings and pictures of dye plants at the Dye Garden which will culminate with a workshop and future potential for guided walks.

This project has been possible with support from Heritage Horizons - CHArts Argyll & Isles and Scottish Power Foundation.

Oban Heritage of Colours - Naoko Mabon

Have you ever known a place by its colours? What colours are Oban? 

By colours, it is not about the paints on buildings or ferries. In Oban Heritage of Colours, we would like to explore the colours invisible at a glance, maybe hidden within what is growing in the natural environment, namely plants, and is only able to become visible through the creative - and scientific - process of natural dyeing.

So, what is natural dyeing? Natural dyes are colouring agents that are derived from natural sources. Until the discovery of synthetic dyes in the mid-1800s, all dyes came from sources such as insects, plants or minerals. Apparently, some archaeologists have found evidence of textile dyeing dating back to the Neolithic period. 

In Scotland too, especially in the Gàidhealtachd(*1), natural dyeing has been practiced since ancient times, in close association with tweed fabric production. Any natural sources available in the house or outdoors have been used for natural dyeing, such as bog myrtle, dulse, onion skins, heather, or different varieties of lichen known as crotal or crottle, to extract different shades of colours including yellow, brown, red, green and blue. Although we don't have any Oban-specific historic record yet (let us know if you do!), in nearby locations, there are records of natural dyeing experimented and practiced in the early 1900s by Eilidh MacDougall and Jean MacDougall (later Jean Hadfield) at Dunollie Castle and Grounds, Mrs J. C. Wilson of Slockavullin in Kilmartin(*2), and a cailleach (old women) in Morar of Mallaig(*3).

The traditional process of natural dyeing is “laborious, slow, messy and frankly smelly”(*4) and requires a great deal of skills, knowledge and patience, compared to the chemical process of synthetic dyeing, which is quicker, cheaper and produces more consistent and varied colours. Therefore, after synthetic dyeing took over as the mainstream way to dye fabrics, natural dyeing declined. But it never stopped. Today, there are many practitioners across the world working on the technique of natural dyeing, including Deborah Gray, a textile artist based in Oban. In 2021, Deborah led the establishment of a Dye Garden with local volunteers in the grounds of The Rockfield Centre, where around 15 dye plants have been sown and are growing.(*5)

When she gave her Fiction and Archaeology talk on Lismore in September 2021 to bookend the island's major community archaeological dig, the historical fiction writer Margaret Elphinstone highlighted the fascinating meeting point and common ground between creative practice and process of fiction writing and academic study of archaeology through constant assumption, translation and negotiation between what we can see and touch and what is bygone and forever unknown. Both writers and archaeologists would sit on an ancient gathering stone circle and hold excavated chestnut shells to try to picture and understand the life, characteristics and thoughts of ancestors. If looking at heritage as a “carrying stream” which needs constant remakes and renewals to be passed on(*6), in the same way as tradition was metaphorised by the poet, songwriter and activist Hamish Henderson, we are only able to carry this constant stream of heritage on to future generations by actively participating in and engaging with it using our creativity, imagination and interpretation relevant to the time we live in today. 

Therefore, to look at Oban and its heritage closely, we decided to use the lens of natural dyeing. The focused historical period is present day, as well as between the 1840s and 1920s when Oban saw the most dramatic development, mainly around the arrival of the railway line in 1880. Taking our Dye Garden as a point of departure, we started to walk around the town with several maps in hand, tracing the key sites, events and people historically involved in dyeing or growing, and trying to see connections to the dye plants growing in the Dye Garden at The Rockfield Centre.

You can add to the project - Our interactive digital map linked below is open for contributions! Anyone can join and contribute related locations and associated stories and pictures.

Let's walk around town with maps, trace the clues, imagine the flow of time bygone and today, and picture natural growths and colours that might be hidden. Just as the natural dyeing process brings invisible natural colours visible, let this process of field exploration allow you to almost excavate a variety of shades of Oban colours. 

THE PLANTS

About half of the dye plants we have grown in our dye garden at the Rockfield Centre are also mentioned in accounts of traditional dyeing in Scotland.

Our thanks to Deborah Gray for the use of research detail - “Our contemporary dye plants, their history and use”  © Deborah Gray 2022 which have been collated in the plants gallery found here

Traditional dye plants are noted with a T in the post headings. Other dye plants listed are known to contemporary craft dyers.

Basic natural dyeing methods

Natural dyeing can be broken down into 3 phases: cleaning and preparing the fibre (which might be raw fibre, yarn or fabric), extracting the dyestuff from the plants and fixing the dye on the fibre.

Preparation: the fibre must be absolutely clean. Wool, silk and other protein (animal) fibres can be gently hand- washed in hot water with a pH neutral detergent, or olive oil soap with a little washing soda, then very thoroughly rinsed. Cotton, linen and other cellulose (plant) fibres can be machine-washed at high temperature with pH neutral detergent or simmered in hot water with olive oil soap and a little washing soda. In either case they must be rinsed very thoroughly. Traditionally urine was used in the scouring process – washing soda is a contemporary substitute.

Mordanting:  Some plants will dye fibre without a mordant but mordants help the dye to attach to the fibre, they often make the colour brighter or stronger, and help it to last longer.  Mordanting is usually done before dyeing, although it can be simultaneous or done after dyeing. The most commonly used mordants are salts of aluminium – either aluminium sulphate (alum) for wool, silk and other protein fibres, or aluminium acetate for cotton, linen and other cellulose fibres. Some plants accumulate aluminium in their leaves and can be used to mordant both protein and cellulose fibres. Traditionally Fir Club Moss (Lycopodium) was used but this is now an endangered species. Camellia leaves can be used. Soy milk can be used to pre-treat cellulose fibres instead of mordanting – it coats the fibres with protein to which the dye attaches. Other mordants have been used traditionally such as copper sulphate, tin or chrome but their use has declined due to environmental and toxicity concerns. Iron oxide or sulphate was extensively used as a mordant but is now more often used as a modifier to limit the damage it can do to the fibres.

Extracting the dyestuff: usually this is done in hot water. It is better to gently heat and simmer just below boiling point as some dyestuffs are destroyed by boiling. Some dyestuffs extract within 30 minutes to an hour but some take much longer.

Fixing the dye to the fibre: When the dyestuff has been extracted the hot dyebath is usually strained and cooled slightly before the soaking wet fibre is added. It can then be reheated to around 80 Celcius and then held at that temperature. The time it takes for the maximum amount of dyestuff to attach to the fibre varies. Alternatively, the fibre can be added to the warm dyebath and left to soak without additional heat for a longer period, up to a few days. Once the dye fixing process is complete the fibre must be rinsed, washed in pH neutral detergent and then rinsed again.

Solar dyeing is an alternative method in which mordanting, extracting and fixing take place simultaneously in one sealed glass vessel over an extended period – up to several months. The only energy used comes from sunlight.

Modifying: After the fibre has been dyed the colour can be modified by dipping the wet fibre briefly (1 – 10 minutes) in either an alkali solution - either dilute washing soda or very dilute ammonia (traditionally diluted urine would have been used), a mild acid (diluted vinegar) or a second mordant (dilute iron sulphate). The effects differ from one dye to another. Alkali often brightens yellows and turns reds to a brighter pink. Acid can shift some purples, iron can change some yellows to green, darken beiges and browns and shift some reds towards purple or grey.

© Deborah Gray 2022

Sources

Traditional Scottish Dyes and how to make them.  Jean Fraser 1983

The Colour Cauldron: The history and use of natural dyes in Scotland. Su Grierson 1986

Wild Color; The complete guide to making and using natural dyes. Jenny Dean 1999

Wikipedia (plant species pages) accessed March 2022

Natural dyed wool samples and notes on natural dyeing by Eilidh MacDougall and Jean MacDougall (later Jean Hadfield), Hope MacDougall Collection, Dunollie Museum, Castle & Grounds.

Author’s experience and research.