Natural Dyes

Colour from the
Himalayan forest.

HFMN promotes natural colorants and plant-based dyes as part of Nepal's sustainable textile future — connecting local biodiversity, traditional knowledge, eco-friendly processing and high-value textile branding.

Madder Marigold Indigo Walnut Rhododendron Onion skin Tea Bark
Natural dye portrait Natural dye portrait Natural dye portrait
Portrait 01
Madder pot, Ilam cluster
The Story

A palette measured in generations, not seasons.

Colour once came from the same forest that fed the village. Madder root for red. Marigold for yellow. Walnut husk for brown. Rhododendron petals for rose. Each recipe was held by an elder, adjusted by hand and passed down as much through smell as through measurement.

HFMN's natural-dye programme is a slow, careful attempt to bring that knowledge into a standardised colour library — one that keeps its provenance intact while giving today's weavers, cooperatives and designers a reliable palette to specify, order and export.

The Colour Wheel · Laboratory

Eight sources, one library.

Every botanical below carries its own recipe — the swatch it yields, the mordant it needs, its fastness on cloth and its place in Nepal's dye tradition.

Now dyeing
Madder
Recipe · 01
HFMN Colour Library

Madder root

Rubia manjith
Mordant
Alum
Season
Autumn
Fastness (light + wash)
Traditional use
Deep reds for silk and wool
Colour from the forest

Madder, marigold, indigo — the old palette.

Every dye pot is a small research lab: biodiversity, traditional knowledge and low-chemistry processing, together.

Sources · The Botanical Palette

Specimens from the Nepal herbarium.

No. 01
Madder root
Madder root
Rubia manjith · deep red
No. 02
Marigold
Marigold
Tagetes · warm yellow
No. 03
Indigo possibilities
Indigo possibilities
Indigofera · vat blue
No. 04
Tea waste
Tea waste
Camellia · soft taupe
No. 05
Onion skin
Onion skin
Allium cepa · golden ochre
No. 06
Rhododendron research
Rhododendron research
Rhododendron arb. · rose
No. 07
Forest-based dye plants
Forest-based dye plants
Multiple sp. · olive & bark
No. 08
Local barks, leaves, roots and flowers suitable for research
Local barks, leaves, roots and flowers suitable for research
Community-collected specimens
The Dye Pot Ribbon

From forest floor to colour library.

  1. Harvest
    Stop 1
    Harvest
    Roots, husks & flowers gathered by hand
  2. Chop
    Stop 2
    Chop
    Cut, sorted and weighed by lot
  3. Mordant
    Stop 3
    Mordant
    Alum or iron bath to open the fibre
  4. Simmer
    Stop 4
    Simmer
    Slow heat draws the colour into water
  5. Dip
    Stop 5
    Dip
    Skeins immersed, stirred, turned
  6. Rinse
    Stop 6
    Rinse
    Clean water sets the colour
  7. Dry
    Stop 7
    Dry
    Shade-dried on bamboo poles
  8. Log
    Stop 8
    Log
    Recipe, mordant, lot logged in library
The Dye Programme

Four pages, one programme.

Natural Dye Research

Identification and testing of local dye plants and colorants under HFMN's research and quality framework.

Fastness & Provenance Ledger

Every colour, traceable to a district.

  • Deep madder red
    SourceMadder root
    MordantAlum
    Light
    5/5
    Wash
    5/5
    Ilam
  • Marigold yellow
    SourceMarigold
    MordantAlum
    Light
    3/5
    Wash
    4/5
    Kavre
  • Indigo blue
    SourceIndigo
    MordantVat
    Light
    5/5
    Wash
    4/5
    Bardiya
  • Walnut brown
    SourceWalnut husk
    MordantNone
    Light
    4/5
    Wash
    4/5
    Palpa
  • Rhododendron rose
    SourceRhododendron
    MordantAlum
    Light
    2/5
    Wash
    3/5
    Sankhuwasabha
  • Onion ochre
    SourceOnion skin
    MordantIron
    Light
    3/5
    Wash
    3/5
    Kathmandu
  • Forest olive
    SourceBark & leaves
    MordantAlum · Iron
    Light
    4/5
    Wash
    4/5
    Terhathum
0+
Colorants logged
0
Source districts
0+
Recipes in library
0
Fastness grade avg
In Practice

The dye pot, as a workplace.

Everything HFMN does — from a mulberry seedling to a finished bolt of cloth — is stewarded by a real cooperative, a real weaver and a real ledger. This is a snapshot.
01
Foraged inputs

Farmer linkage

Madder, walnut husk and rhododendron flowers are bought from farming households at published seasonal rates — a second income from what used to be waste.

02
Village dye-houses

Shared infrastructure

Cooperative dye-houses share vats, mordants and wastewater treatment — costs no single artisan could carry alone.

03
Colour library

Standardised recipes

Every recipe is logged with plant source, mordant and lot number — so a colour from 2024 can be reproduced in 2026, and traced back to a farm.

“ My grandmother knew the plants. HFMN taught us to write down the recipe.
— Dyer, Ilam natural colour cluster

“The forest was already a colour library. We only learned to write it down.”

— HFMN natural-dye programme, 2026