Until the beginning of the 20th century, the only colours used in weaving were taken from nature. These colours are not "pure" but are mixtures of colours, some of which are oxidized forms of the pure. The result is that the colours are not intense, like artificial ones, but achieve harmonious colour combinations. The choice of colours from the fabric depended on the local plant species that could be used as dyes and on knowledge of dye recipes. However, today most vegetable dyes have been replaced or combined with aniline artificial, which does not require the time-consuming processing of the vegetable.
One of the basic preparations before weaving is dyeing. The traditional dyeing of raw materials was done using plants, as there were no chemical dyes then. They collected roots, flowers, leaves, seeds, fruits, straw, and smoke from fireplaces, and used them to give colour to yarn. Some of them were used immediately, while others were left to dry first. Some gave a different colour with boiling and another without boiling, like berries for example. It is also important to mention that some of them need a substance, astringent, to make the dye permanent while some others do not because they have it. The colours from vegetable dyes are indelible.
By making various admixtures in the vegetable dyes they used, they obtained other shades in the yarn they dyed. The different raw materials, cotton, wool and silk, were coloured differently when dyed with the same natural colour. Silk was almost always dyed better than the rest. Also, even when the same amounts of materials were used, the paint produced a similar shade, but never the same. Finally, vegetable colours were never dyed strongly.