Dyes Used on Mat Straws.
Mordants.
A mordant is a substance employed to fix the dye to the material. In general, different ones are needed for different dyes and various materials. In some cases the mordant is added to the dye liquid; in others the material is previously treated with it before being colored. The most important are the mineral mordants, such as the alumina, the iron, the tin, and the chrome. These are not used in the Philippines with local vegetable dyes. Tannin is also important and is employed to some extent in the Philippines, being generally obtained from the mangrove tan barks. Wood ashes are little used but vinegar and lemon juice are important.
Kolis.—The leaves of this plant (Memecylon edule) are commonly used in mordanting buri straw before dyeing it with sappan wood. In Tanay, Rizal, it is employed on sabutan straw with all of the vegetable dyes. It is known as guisian (Laguna), duigim (Ilocos, Pangasinan), kulis (Rizal, Nueva Ecija, Bataan), tagobachi (Leyte), kasigay (Ilocos Norte), agam (Negrito, Cagayan), guisoc-guisoc (Sorsogon), macaasin (Tayabas), baian (Zambales), diyatdiyatan (Tayabas), candong (Pangasinan), dioc (Pangasinan).
Natural Vegetable Dyes.
Numerous natural vegetable dyes are employed in the Philippines. Those used on the mat straws are limited in number. The important ones only are here noted. The whole question of dyes is a most difficult one and hardly warrants the time which has been spent upon investigating the various dye materials, nor the effort which would be necessary to determine definitely the methods by which they can be used on mat straws. The artificial dyes have driven the natural vegetable dyes out of use because they are cheaper and are more easily applied, and because in most cases they produce more pleasing and lasting colors.
Sappan.—This plant (Caesalpinia sappan) is known as sapang in Tagalog and Ilocano and as sibucao in Visayan and Bicol. A beautiful dye varying from red to red-orange (see [Plate III]) is obtained from chips of the wood. This is employed on most Philippine fibers. Lime is sometimes used as a mordant but the straws are usually first treated with kolis leaves.
Turmeric.—This plant (Curcuma longa) is known as dilao throughout the Islands. In Ilocano it is called kunig. Kalaoag is its name in Negros and Sorsogon, ange in Pampanga and duao in parts of the Visayas. The yellow dye obtained from the roots is fugitive in the sunlight.
Annatto.—This plant (Bixa orellana) is generally known here as achuete. It is sometimes called achiote. The plant bears burs containing many small reddish seeds, from the pulp of which the dye is obtained. It is often employed in combination with turmeric. The result is a yellow orange. The dye fades easily.
Deora.—The use of this plant (Peristrophe tinctoria) is confined to the Visayas and Mindanao, where it is known by this name and also as dauda and daura. In Samar the name is dala-uda. It is a small bush and is usually grown in the gardens for its leaves and tender stems. A mordant is not used. The color ranges from yellow orange to a deep red orange.
The methods of using these dye materials are explained for each straw.
Materials Used with Mud to Obtain Dark Grays.
Red or green straws are turned dark gray by burying them in mud to which certain substances (usually containing tannin) are added.
Talisay.—This large tree (Terminalia catappa) is common in the Philippines. The leaves are added to the mud in dyeing straw black. From the bark a brown dye may be obtained. It is, however, seldom used. It is universally known as talisay. Spanish speaking people call it almendras.
Indigo.—Two species of Indigoferae are grown in the Philippines and are known as tagum. Except with mud they are not used to dye straws.
Tiagkot.—The leaves of this plant (Pithecolobium subacutum) are employed on Romblon Island in dyeing buri gray. Other names are tagayong, narandauel, saplit (Cagayan); carisquis, ayamguitan (Zambales); tugurare (Pangasinan); inep (Bulacan); malasaga, malaganip, tekin (Laguna); bahay (Sorsogon); tagomtagom (Samar); tique (Rizal).
Kabling.—This plant (Pogostemon cablin) is generally cultivated, though it grows where its cultivation has been abandoned. A volatile oil, used to keep away insects from textiles, is obtained from the leaves. The leaves are used in Tanay, Rizal, in obtaining gray sabutan straw.
Mabolo.—The heart wood of this tree (Diospyros discolor) is known as kamagon. The leaves are employed in Tanay, Rizal.
Castor.—This plant (Ricinus communis) is seldom cultivated in the Philippines but is found wild in all localities. The “beans” yield the oil. The leaves are added to mud in obtaining gray sabutan straw.
Artificial Dyes.
It is commonly believed that artificial dyes are less permanent than natural ones. This is seldom the case; as a matter of fact, some of the fastest and most valuable dyes are now made artificially and many are not procurable from vegetable coloring matters. Most of the cheaper dyes made from coal tar are fugitive; that is, they fade in sunlight or water or in both. They are often still further cheapened by being adulterated with salt, dextrine and the like. Such are the colors which are usually sold by the Chinese tienda keepers and which have caused artificial dyes in general to come into such ill-repute in the Philippines. Many of these “Chino dyes” contain 95 per cent salt. It is the belief, however, that artificial dyes of a good class, so packed and marketed that they will come cheaply to the hands of the dyers and weavers, will drive out of use practically all of the vegetable dyes now employed in the Philippines. The disuse of the natural dyes would not be regretted here, for, with the possible exception of those obtained from sabutan straw in Tanay, much finer colors can be produced with artificial dyes, as to both beauty and fastness. If the time of the workers is considered, the vegetable dyes now employed in the Philippines are more expensive than the artificial dyes, even though the latter are now sold in wastefully small packages and bear the burden of several large profits before they come to the hands of the persons using them.[1]
[1] The Bureau of Education has taken steps to procure a series of dyes suited to each one of the mat straws and other important fibers used in household industries and industrial instruction in the Philippines.