Colors in American rugs

area rug

Red—made from cranberries, beets, pokeberry root, cochineal and madder root. A certain highly prized pink was made by scraping dust from old soft brick.

Yellow—from onionskin, St.-John's-wort, the bark of the hickory, walnut or yellow oak tree, or a bit of saffron from India.

Green—a. combination of blues and yellows, sometimes black oak bark.

Blue—wax myrtle, larkspur, or indigo.

Brown—the butternut or maple tree bark.

Black—Americans had what the early Orientals lacked, a good black vegetable dye that did not eat the fabric.

It was made from a Central American tree called "logwood," which the Spanish explorers found and brought to North America and Europe.