Natural dyeing starts with a mordant — typically alum or a mineral salt — applied to the yarn so plant pigment can bind to the fiber instead of washing straight out. This step alone can take a full day of soaking and drying before any color touches the cloth.
Madder root produces the deep terracotta and rust tones seen across our Ikat kits, while dried pomegranate rind yields warmer ochres and soft golds. Both are simmered into a dye bath the yarn is steeped in, often multiple times, to build up depth of color gradually rather than in a single dip.
Because these are natural extracts rather than standardized synthetic dyes, small variations in color are expected batch to batch — a feature of the process, not a defect. Two Terracotta Earth kits woven a season apart may sit slightly differently on the color wheel, and that's the yarn honestly reflecting what came out of the dye vat that week.
This is also part of why natural-dyed fabric ages so gracefully: the pigment is bound at a molecular level to organic fiber, so it fades softly and evenly rather than looking chemically 'washed out.'