Harvesting enough of it to dye a measure of cloth or fabric is intensive, and in-turn very expensive.

Though humanity had finally found the perfect source for natural purple dye that will not fade easily, there came with it a problem. The snails used were usually from the Bolinus brandaris species which live in shells similar to the one pictured on the right. This mucous is collected and the fabrics are dyed, creating a brilliant and vibrant purple color. The dye was made from sea snails or rock snails that secrete a purple mucous. Tyrian Purple was also referred to as Tyrian Red, Royal Purple, Imperial Purple or Imperial Dye, and was used as far back in time as the Phoenician civilization - 1570 BC. While there were few instances of bright purple dyes for fabric and cloth throughout history, the first notable purple dye came in the form of “Tyrian Purple.” Tyrian Purple Even many attempts to create a dye out of bright purple flowers ended in sickly blue dyes, or purples that quickly faded to a drab grey. Purple dyes in ancient times were fairly hard to come by, as purple is not a widely occurring natural color on this earth. Today, we will go into a brief history of purple cloth and fabrics. Purple is elegant, powerful, and comforting to the eye. For us, we love to use purple fabrics in interiors as a secondary or trim color. There are many out there that are against decorating interiors with the color purple, and even some that are simply afraid to decorate with purple - feeling that it is too bold of a color.

Download tyrian purple fabric