Woad Balls

With the frost rapidly approaching, I decided to use the remainder of my woad to make ‘woad balls’. I ground the leaves using a brick over a slab, and then made a ball in my hand. The second ball I made against a board, like the waddies did in old photos of woad mills. Much easier that way as there is so much liquid to get rid of. The colour came off my hands with a bit of scrubbing, but the powerful smell remains. Not sure where to dry the balls, might be too cold outside, and too smelly inside. See this link for more info.

Chamberpot

I have been looking for a chamberpot to photograph for the section on the website on using urine in a woad vat. Eventually friends who collect antiques lent us two ornate chamberpots. As the pots were used for decoration, we did not want to put actual urine in them for the photoshoot. Took us over a week to come up with a urine substitute. In the end we boiled two handfuls of flowers of dyers chamomile in a pot of water, which gave the correct colour. A dash of washing up liquid created the ‘froth’, and we ended up with very realistic looking urine.