Dyes
The act of dyeing is not decoration. It is an alteration of the skin itself.
Leather absorbs what you give it. These recipes use historical ingredients: plant matter, mineral mordants, time. The color becomes part of the hide, not a coating on it.
Each name names a condition, not just a color.
Ingredients as History
Logwood: colonial exploitation, funeral blacks, ink of bureaucratic death records. Madder: ancient root-blood, the earliest reds for both bridal and burial cloth. Indigo: extraction labor, bruises of the sky, sacred blue that stains fingertips. Nettle: sting and cure, humble wildness, fabric for the poor and the dead. Verdigris: copper decay, the poison of artists, the green of old bronze tomb markers. Iron mordant: blood-rust, weapon and wound, earth's bite in the fibers.
Leather (once skin) absorbs logwood (once tree), madder (once root), and verdigris (once copper). A chain of mortal matter converging in a single surface. The mordant fixes these ghosts into the leather's pores, making memory permanent. This process mirrors mummification, except here death is worn openly.
Aima
Αἷμα · blood HAI-mah
#581523
Aima is not red. It is the cost of continuity.
Madder root, logwood, iron mordant. The same pigments that colored Roman boots and British saddlery. True oxbloods fade to rust unless correctly fixed. This one holds.
Thanatochromia
Θανατοχρωμία · the color death leaves behind tha-na-to-khro-MEE-ah
#2C1B3A
Imperial purple from sea-snail dye cost fortunes to make. This version channels that legacy through logwood and indigo, muted into shadow by iron.
A coined word. Greek grammar, new meaning.
Aporia
ἀπορία · the condition of being stuck between unresolvable truths ah-po-REE-ah
#5C8E63
Green on leather was historically elusive. Most faded fast or turned brown. This version borrows stability from copper (verdigris, micro-dosed) and depth from nettle and logwood.
The philosophical condition a wise mind must pass through to grow.
Process
Botanical matter simmered for an hour. Strained. Iron mordant added gradually, watching the color shift as it oxidizes. Applied in thin coats by sponge or wool dauber, dried and buffed between layers. Thin coats over thick. Patience over speed.
Hand-dyed pieces are released in limited batches.