Indigo exhibition at the Whitworth

On Saturday 20 Jan, we went to the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester to see the Indigo exhibition. It was worth going just to see Hiroyuki Shindo’s first exhibition in the UK. His installation of long lengths of indigo-dyed cloths hung over dyed balls. Listening to his talk about using a traditional indigo vat for over 40 years was a bonus.

Dyeing with woad seeds

Today I dyed a silk sample (2g of mordanted Dupion silk) with 60g of woad seeds. Yesterday I left the seeds soaking in water overnight. Today I simmered them for an hour,

Woad in the theatre

Made contact with Deb, a professional dyer from The Mulberry Dyer. She has dyed a 14m length of fabric with woad that was used to make costumes for a theatre production (www.tmdevents.co.uk).

Living Rivers

Heard about a woman who dyed a long length of cloth with woad to represent a living river. The links I was given were dead. Does anybody have more information about this installation?

Woad.org.uk

Woad.org.uk is a new web site on the traditional blue dye plant - Woad (Isatis tinctoria) - its history, cultivation, extraction, dyeing techniques for Woad, use by the Picts, and more…