Recette de teinture à la racine d’igname du Vietnam

Vietnamese Yam Root Tincture Recipe

Yam is a perennial plant grown in tropical regions.

Its tuber is used for food, medicine and dyeing.

Save cultures

On the occasion of Environment Month, Opportunity for Women publishes a new article on its blog every week, in order to promote the flora of the tropical region of Dien Bien Phu, in Vietnam. It is a fragile and yet very much alive ecosystem, which is full of plant species as aesthetic as useful, which are essential to the balance of local biodiversity and rich in properties for food, medicine and even vegetable dye!

The weavers of the Dien Bien Phu cooperative are also dyers: they collect dye plants in the surrounding forest or cultivate them on their land, before harvesting them to extract the dye.

Opportunity for Women, by supporting the development of the activity of Lao craftswomen through the programming of professional training, also encourages them to keep a written record of this intangible heritage, so that it can be passed on to the youngest. Going through writing not only allows us to better remember the different steps to be carried out during the dyeing process, but also to improve the recipes as experiments are carried out.

For this second article in our series “The secrets of vegetable dyes”, let’s continue our journey to Vietnam and go to the yam harvest with the Lao weavers! Highly prized in the Mekong Delta until the middle of the 19th century, dyeing based on yam roots has been somewhat forgotten until today. At the time, yams could also be used to tan leather. Thus, the weavers of the Dien Bien Phu cooperative, in association with our local partners, are perpetuating this ancient know-how, starting by re-establishing yam cultivation within the cooperative.

Yam is a plant native to Africa whose cultivation has spread to all continents, from South America to Southeast Asia. It is a plant whose tuber, its nutrient reserve located on the root, is used as much to cook delicious recipes as to cure diseases. Its elongated shape is reminiscent of the sweet potato or Jerusalem artichoke. Its texture, on the other hand, is almost as rough and knotty as tree bark. From one species to another, its external appearance can vary, ranging from white to black, through yellow and brown. Its flesh, meanwhile, is white or yellowish. Some yams can measure up to 60 cm and weigh up to five kilos!

Yam is a very interesting plant for vegetable dyeing, because it contains many tannins, a colored and coloring substance contained in plants. After transforming the tuber into pulp, it is enough to dilute it in a little water to extract the dye. The latter can be used to dye plant fibers, such as the cotton that weavers grow and weave, in tones close to yellow ochre. The advantage is that, like all dye plants, yam is biodegradable and leaves no environmental footprint.

Pom harvests a yam.

Its tuber, buried underground, is similar to the sweet potato and the Jerusalem artichoke.

Dyeing book

List of ingredients:

  • yam tubers
  • baking soda

Did you know?

Baking soda has been known since ancient times! The Egyptians already used it as a soap and ingredient to make ointments. In the 18th century, it was the French chemist Leblanc who was the first to develop baking soda as we know it today. Then, in 1863, the Belgian Solvay invented a new process, which is still widely used in Europe today; this one resulting from the association of two natural mineral materials: rock salt and limestone. It is this baking soda that Vietnamese dyers use, because it is economical, biodegradable and harmless.

Roughly chop the yam to make the following steps easier.

Dyeing process

For more information on washing and mordanting plant fibers before dyeing, see the first article from our series “The secrets of vegetable dyes”.

  • Step 1 (left to right) | Vi Thi Tich prepares the skeins of cotton thread that will be dipped into the dye bath, while Pom and Giot cut the yams into pieces.
  • Step 2 | Giot grates the tuber, so as to transform it into a fine pulp.
  • Step 3 | The weavers take turns: while one prepares the coloring matter, the others prepare the fabric to be dyed by boiling it with ash lye, in order to extract the impurities. The textile is then rinsed in clear water.
  • Step 4 | In a basin, the pulp is covered with water and mixed completely, then this mixture is left to rest overnight.
  • Step 5 | The next day, the dyers extract the dye by pressing and filtering the yam root pulp.
  • Step 6 | The juice obtained, to which the baking soda is added, is placed in a container. To dye this skein of cotton thread, it is then necessary to soak it in the dye bath, the temperature of which is gradually raised until it reaches 60°C after 45 minutes of boiling.

    Dyeing can also be done cold. In this case, the textile is soaked in the dye bath for a period of one hour to one night, depending on the desired shade.

  • Step 7 | Little hands gently rinse the dyed textiles in clear water. Finally, they are hung on a clothesline to dry, away from sunlight.

Please note:

You can reuse the same dye bath several times!

Indeed, once the dyeing process is complete, the bath can be kept for a few more days and can be used to re-dye the fabrics colored the day before, in order to obtain deeper shades. This tip has the advantage of saving natural resources (water, plants) and is consistent with our eco-responsible approach.

Encourage vocational training

This training in natural dyeing was given to the weavers by the Vietnamese Thao Vu, fashion designer and specialist in natural dyeing. To discover her brand of “slow fashion” Kilomet109 , it's over there!

The weavers of the Dien Bien Phu cooperative were able to be trained thanks to the funding of this training by the Agir sa Vie foundation, as well as your donations to our association.

Would you like to support our projects, contribute to the development of weavers and the improvement of their daily lives?  Make a donation !

Even a small gesture can help these women live their passion!

Thank you!

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