Across the European continent, the art and science of textile dyeing has long left its mark—not only in the richly colored cloths that once circulated through markets, courts, and workshops, but in the manuscripts, recipe books, and trade records that attempted to capture and codify its processes. These sources, whether written by master dyers, craftsmen, or publishers, offer invaluable insights into material knowledge and cultural practice. Yet despite the depth of this collective heritage, research in the field has often unfolded in parallel rather than in dialogue—scattered across regions, languages, and disciplinary boundaries.

 
This expert meeting proposes to shift this paradigm by bringing together scholars and practitioners who have engaged deeply with both the study and the practical reconstruction of dyeing techniques across Europe. We aim to create a space where participants can compare sources, share findings, and reflect critically. Our work is grounded in a dual approach, academic inquiry combined with material experimentation, which allows us to treat historical texts not only as static records but as dynamic, practice-based instructions shaped by craft, context, and embodied knowledge. While our individual research projects are rooted in specific geographic and cultural contexts, just as the dyers of the past were, recurring themes and overlapping practices emerge. These connections reflect the historical movement of people, goods, and knowledge across regions and borders. The meeting will be divided in two parts, in the first one, each participant will present their most recent research, offering insight into their methods, questions, and discoveries. Through these presentations, we look for common grounds and themes on which to confront and exchange expertise, which will lead to and be applied on the second day.

 
The second part of the meeting will turn from discourse to doing. In a collective workshop, focusing mostly on red hues, we will reconstruct selected dye recipes drawn from our research, testing not only their technical feasibility but the interpretive challenges they pose. What does it mean, in practice, to “boil until the color is right” when referring to a specific color as “flesh color” or “fire red”? How do we navigate terms whose meaning has shifted or vanished? How similar were the tin liquor preparations between different locations and time frames? Through the combination of theoretical and practical approaches, this meeting aims to open paths for further collaborative research on dye practices, with the broader goal of initiating an international project on natural dyes, the circulation of knowledge, and color terminology in Europe

Participants: Natalia Ortega, Dominique Cardon, Jo Kirby, Ana Serrano, Eva Eis, Paula Nabais, Mara Espirito Santo, Emile Lupatini.
Duration: 3 days
Date: 12th, 13th and 14th of November 2025