Before a single leaf touches the fabric, the cloth itself has to be prepared to hold colour permanently — and that preparation starts with foraged, plant-based materials of its own.
Where the Botanicals Come From
Every garment at Adam Leaves begins with a search for life that has been discarded. Our colours and patterns do not come from a synthetic laboratory; they are direct imprints from the earth.
Our eco-printing journey started with discarded offering flowers from a local temple in Mumbai. By pressing those sacred petals onto a simple handkerchief, we discovered a way to give beautiful, fleeting botanicals a permanent second life. Today, that same reverence guides our entire sourcing process.
We carefully collect fallen leaves, local flora, and discarded floral offerings. We do not harvest living plants in a way that disrupts the ecosystem; instead, we forage for what nature and our community have already released.
Two Fibre Families, Two Different Chemistries
Hemp, linen, and cotton are cellulose (plant-based) fibres. Unlike protein fibres such as silk, cellulose naturally repels metallic mordants — apply alum directly to cotton or linen and most of it washes straight back out, leaving pale, fleeting colour. Getting permanent, production-quality colour onto plant cloth takes a two-step process: a tannin bath, followed by a metallic mordant bath.
The Materials, and Why We Use Them
| Stage | Material | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-wash (scour) | Soda ash & neutral soap | Strips the natural waxes and sizing plant fibres arrive in, so water and tannin can penetrate evenly. |
| The binder (tannin) | Harad (Myrobalan) | Cellulose won't bond directly to alum — Harad is the bridge. It bonds to the fibre, and the alum then bonds to it. Leaves a warm, buttery base colour. |
| The binder (tannin) | Oak gallnut / tara powder | A "clear" tannin — same bridging job as Harad, without shifting the base colour. Used for bright pinks and stark whites. |
| The fixative (mordant) | Aluminium acetate | The gold standard for cotton, linen, and hemp — bonds more effectively to cellulose than plain alum, for brighter, faster colour. |
| The fixative (mordant) | Potassium alum + soda ash | The traditional route — needs the soda ash to shift its alkalinity so it will take on plant fibre. |
The Procedure
- Scour. Weigh the dry fabric to set the WOF (Weight of Fabric). Simmer at roughly 82°C (180°F) with 2% WOF soda ash and 1% WOF neutral detergent for 1–2 hours, then rinse until the water runs clear.
- Tannin bath. Dissolve Harad (roughly 10–15% WOF) in hot water, submerge the scoured fabric, hold at roughly 71°C (160°F) for an hour, then let it steep as it cools — ideally overnight. The longer it steeps, the stronger the bond.
- Mordant bath. Dissolve aluminium acetate (roughly 5–8% WOF) and submerge the tannin-treated cloth. Hold at roughly 49°C (120°F) for 45–60 minutes, stirring so the metal bonds evenly across the yardage.
- Cure. Extract the excess moisture, hang to dry in the shade, then rest the bone-dry fabric for 3–5 days. This curing window is what lets the alum-tannin bond harden permanently into the fibre — skip it, and the colour won't hold.
For a 5kg batch of linen, that works out to 100g soda ash, 50g neutral soap, 750g Harad, and 250g aluminium acetate, in a liquor ratio of at least 20:1 to 30:1 (100–150 litres of water) so the cloth can move freely without creasing.
Silk Follows a Different Path
As a protein fibre, silk bonds directly to metal — no tannin bridge needed. We scour it gently (neutral soap only, never soda ash, never above 60°C) and mordant with potassium alum at 15% WOF, holding at 82°C for 45–60 minutes before letting it cool in the bath overnight for the strongest bond.
It's slower than synthetic dyeing by days, not minutes. That's the trade-off for colour that doesn't fade in the wash.
