5 min read

Dyeing with Kermes

Updated: Oct 10, 2023

The rarest dyes, part of a series of (now) rare natural dyes, see also the blog about Murex and Kakishibu.

Kermens is an insect-derived dye, belonging to the group of anthraquinone dyes that include;

Armenian cochineal

(Porphyrophora hamelii) - carminic acid + kermesic acid

Cochineal

(Dactylopius coccus) - carminic acid (CI 75470 Natural Red 4)

Polish cochineal

(Porphyrophora polonica) - carminic acid + traces of kermesic acid

Kermes

(Kermes ilicis) - kermesic acid (CI 75460, CI natural red 3) + flavokermesic acid. Kermes also contains 18-32% tannins.

Lac (Kerria lacca) - laccaic acid (CI 75450, Natural Red 25)

Where it comes from

natural kermes — Photo credit: Nachman Glazer

The hills of the woods in my region are covered with the low-growing Quercus coccifera oak trees. Small, sturdy, evergreen, and drought-resistant oaks that are native to the wider Mediterranean region, from Morocco to France, and from Portugal to Cyprus and Turkey, crossing Spain, Italy, Libya, Balkans, and Greece, including Crete.

Between the spiky leaves that almost look like holly, you can find a rare secret, and if you were not looking for it, you would never notice: Kermes.

They are well hidden and I took a special trip with an expert in foraging, Nachman Glazer so that he could point them out to me. Not all oak trees have them, just this specific species. And of this specific species, not all trees are affected by what is basically a type of pest. What is sure: once you see them they are easier to spot.

Kermes are insects from the order of Hemiptera, commonly called true bugs, that have piercing-sucking mouthparts. The males have wings but no mouth and the ladies have a mouth but no wings. They latch onto the oak with their beak-like mouthparts and feed on its juices, remaining immobile. After mating, the fertilized female increases in size and gives birth to tiny nymphs that can crawl, in the picture you can see those little red specks which are the nymphs.

nachmen glazer — Photo credit: Nachman Glazer

Etymology

The word kermes comes from the Sanskrit word कृमिज or kṛmija meaning "worm-made red dye", then it was adopted by the Persians (and later into Arabic) as قرمز qermez and from there a short route to French kermès and to the English term Kermes.

Coccus ilicis is the Latin name for kermes: The immobile grub looks like a berry, so in Greek, the word for it was "kokkos": a seed or a grain. In Latin this became "coccus" and that word became the synonym for 'berry-yielding scarlet dye'.

In Hebrew, the word Shani " שָנִי" means both the kermes dyestuff and the color. This color had a very significant religious function.

Historical references and use

Kermes insects were used as a red dye since antiquity by the ancient Egyptians, Indians, Greeks, Romans, and Iranians. We find a reference to kermes on 5000-year-old Sumerian clay tablets.

“You take white wool and alum, spread (them) out evenly in water, (and) simmer over coals. Pound ḫatḫurētu (kermes) together with spring water and take up the white wool, spread them out evenly. Simmer in (plain) water and water from (potter’s) clay over coals. (You will obtain) argamannu-purple-colored wool (normally obtained from the secretions of the much more expensive Murex sea snails).”

(Alchemical” tablet K 7942+)

Jars of kermes have been found in a Neolithic cave burial at Adaouste, northeast of Aix-en-Provence.

Kermes (Shani) is mentioned 25 times in the Old Testament, where it is translated as scarlet, a red color that leans towards orange, the color of fire. It is described to be used for ritual purification and healing of Lepers, for use in the red cow ash, and as the red dye for the curtains of the Holy Temple.

wool febric — The Scapegoat by William Holman Hunt, 1908. (public domain)

Exodus 26:1 “Moreover you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine woven linen and blue, purple and scarlet thread; with designs of cherubim you shall weave them.”

As part of the Day of Atonement Temple service, a man would lead away the scapegoat to a ravine some distance away and tie a scarlet wool thread to its horns.

From the Middle Ages kermes was called grain/grana in all Western European languages and textiles dyed with kermes were described as dyed in the grain.

Kermes was used in Europe to dye wool and silk red until imported cochineal from South America began being sold by Spain around 1540, after which it fell slowly into disuse.

silk dye with mordent fabric — The Coronation Mantle of Roger II of Sicily, silk dyed with kermes and embroidered with gold thread and pearls. Royal Workshop, Palermo, Sicily, 1133–34. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Kermes traces have been found in Cretan icons dated before the middle 16th century.

For a mock Tyrian purple, wool would be dyed blue with woad, and then mordanted and dyed in kermes. The amount of work and quantity of kermes needed (around 50% weight of fiber), means it was a very costly dye and reserved only for the most luxurious of fabrics.

a wool fez dyed red with kermes — Fez dyed with kermes

The wool headdress known as Fez (a symbol of the Ottoman Empire and widely worn by Muslims and Jews until the 19th century), was traditionally dyed with kermes. Nowadays nobody does that anymore and the knowledge is lost.

Dyeing with Kermes

Today, it makes no sense to dye at a large scale with Kermes, as the cost of manpower alone makes it very expensive. Collecting a gram of kermes can easily take two hours, a chore reserved for women and children "in the old days", who would grow one long fingernail to detach the insect from the tree with ease. After collecting, the kermes needs to be steamed with vinegar and dried.

In older times, attempts were made to some type of kermes-husbandry but the stakes were high and the return was inconsistent.

Finally, after the discovery of bright reds using tin mordant and cochineal, most dyers stepped over to cochineal. Cochineal can be collected all year round and in larger quantities, it is also much more potent dyestuff: The percentage of carminic acid in cochineal is much higher than the percentage of kermesic acid in kermes.

I made a sample to dye with Kermes from what I have in my stash, and I do admit it is the most beautiful red I have ever seen, by far outstanding cochineal and madder. The feeling of working with a colorant that has such a rich history and a symbolic meaning in my culture is truly unrivaled.

For my samples, I took 11 grams of boiled wool and silk. This was mordanted in 24% WOF alum, and 6% cream of tartar (this is now my most used mordant).

I then made a dye bath with 5.5 grams of finely ground Kermes and left the samples there for 1.5 hours at 60ºC. Then I let it sit in the dye bath overnight when the dye absorption was improved much.

Playing around with ph: an addition of vinegar made the dye very orange, and switching it to a Ph8 with the use of soda ash made it deep deep red.

Right: the orange acidic state, middle and left: ph8.

I promise you it is evenly dyed, the light was making a lot of shades on the sample. Important notice: the red went almost completely to the wool and much less to the silks, whereas when I dyed a similar sample set with madder, the madder dyed both silk and wool without any significant difference in saturation.