Mud Dyeing: coloring with the soil

Mud natural dye

Color from the earth

Ancestral's traditions of coloring with the soil

Mud dyeing is an ancient textile tradition found in several parts of the world — most notably in West Africa (Mali, Burkina Faso), Indonesia (including parts of Java and Sulawesi), and Okinawa, Japan. In these cultures, earth pigment is not a novelty but a heritage practice, rooted in ceremony, protection, social identity, and a deep relationship with land.

Historically, mud dyeing has been practiced by women, artists, farmers, and ritual custodians — each community with its own meaning and method. In Mali, it is known as bogolanfini, a cloth of protection and storytelling. In Japan, dorozome in Amami uses island mud and sumac tannins to create rich browns and blacks. In parts of Indonesia, iron-rich river mud and plant tannins create earthy tones used in traditional garments and ritual cloths.

Across all these traditions, the principle remains the same: earth, mineral, plant, water, time, and human hands.

Mud dyeing is not just a technique, it is a cultural inheritance and a form of place-based knowledge. It survives today, though rarely, because it requires land stewardship, patience, and intergenerational skill — values not easily translated into mass production.

“Dye plant use perpetuates a sustainable relationship with the land, and helps a community prioritise conservation.”
— Threads of Life, Bali

At RIMMBA, we practice mud dyeing in deep respect for these lineages. Our approach is informed by Indonesian techniques and instruction from Threads of Life in Ubud, and inspired by mentorship from Malian master dyer Aboubakar Fofana. We name our teachers and influences, because craft without acknowledgment becomes extraction.

We do not claim cultural ownership.
We participate with care and transparency.

Mud-dyeing is one of the most soothing rituals I know. There’s something ancient about working with earth like this. In many cultures, mud symbolizes protection and purification. Here in our little garden, we’re dyeing silk that will eventually become dresses. I hope that all our customers who wear our dresses, can feel the energy of the minerals and the vibration of the soil.

Over the years, working in the garden has grounded me. It’s made me connect to the land and given me space to disconnect from technology and the noise of the world. I get to drop in, spend real quality time with the craft, and keep deepening my knowledge of Natural Dyes.

A person with short dark hair stands barefoot against a dark background, eyes closed, wearing the flowing Aphrodite Dress - Iron Mud by Rimmba | Sustainable Clothing, accented with silk ribbons and purple butterflies in their hair. — Aphrodite dress, dyed with mud and gambir. The layers of tannin and iron create this copper-metallic, earthy color.

A woman faces away from the camera in Rimmba's Aphrodite Dress - Iron Mud, holding silk strap ribbons. Her dark bun is adorned with purple flowers, set against a dark textured background. Sustainable elegance by Rimmba. — Deeply loved — this dye color is our most popular shade in the store. Our Aphrodite dress works beautifully on all body shapes and sizes, because it’s not fitted and the neckline is fully adjustable. It just drapes, moves, and flatters everyone.

Mud-dyeing has always been more than colour. Artists like Aboubakar Fofana describe it as a meeting point between earth, plants, water, and time — a process where nothing is separate. The tannin from the leaves, the iron in the mud, the microbes, the sun, the hands that work it… everything is alive and participating. I really connect to that. When we dye like this, we’re not just colouring silk — we’re in relationship with the land, letting nature shape the fabric in its own rhythm.

How Mud Dyeing Works at RIMMBA

Mud dyeing is not one dye bath

It's layering earth and plant over time

Preparing the Mud

The process begins in the rice paddies, where we gather iron-rich mud from chemical-free fields. Fresh paddy mud is alive with minerals and microorganisms, but it isn’t immediately dye-active. To awaken it, we mix the mud with rice-starch water. Rich in natural starches, rice water feeds the bacteria living in the soil. As the mixture ferments overnight, these microorganisms transform the iron into the specific form that can bond to natural fibres. Without this fermentation, the mud simply cannot “dye.”

Preparing the Fibre

Before touching mud, the silk itself must be prepared. We begin by mordanting the fabric with Symplocos, an alum-rich leaf harvested sustainably in Indonesia. This natural mordant helps the fibre hold onto iron. The silk is then immersed in a tannin bath. Different regions of Indonesia use different tannin-bearing plants such as Ceriops tagal, but at RIMMBA we work with gambir — a natural tannin extract from the Uncaria gambir plant, traditionally produced in Sumatra. With its exceptionally high tannin content, gambir strengthens the bond between iron and silk and creates the foundation for deep, earthy colour.

The Mud Dye Cycle

Once the fibre is mordanted and rich with tannins, the true rhythm of mud dyeing begins. The cycle follows a repeated sequence:

tannin → mud → dry → rinse → repeat.

The silk first returns to the tannin bath to recharge the fibre with plant tannins, then moves into the fermented iron mud, where the iron reacts with the tannins already embedded in the cloth. The coated fabric is laid under the sun to dry fully until the mud hardens and the silk becomes stiff. Only then is the mud rinsed away, revealing the first soft mineral tone. And then the process begins again — often 10 to 15 rounds, sometimes more, depending on the depth and darkness desired.

Pouring rice water into freshly gathered mud from the rice paddies marks the first step. The mixture is left to ferment for 24 hours. Rice water is rich in natural starches, and those starches “feed” the microorganisms already living in the mud. Once nourished, the bacteria become active, and their activity transforms the iron in the soil into a dye-ready form — the form that can bond to natural fibre.

Tannin-rich plant — here we’re using gambir from Sumatra. We boil down the sap to make the tannin bath, dip the fabric, then move it into the mud. Layering the tannin and mud over and over is what creates those deeper, earthy colours.

Why We Mud Dye

This practice is more than colour

It is cultural memory, land connection, and a ritual of belonging

Working with earth, rice paddies, tannin plants, and time teaches us to move slowly and listen.

It is incredibly spiritual to place your hands in soil, to know where your mud comes from, to honour the farmers and landscapes behind it, and to witness colour emerging through a process older than industry itself.

Mud dyeing keeps a lineage alive — one rooted in land, women’s knowledge, and ancestral chemistry — and it reminds us that true luxury begins with relationship: to earth, to craft, to place, and to the people who steward these traditions.