Woad.org.uk is a new web site on the traditional blue dye plant – Woad (Isatis tinctoria) – its history, cultivation, extraction and dyeing techniques, use by the Picts, and more…
Let us know what you think about Woad web site in the “Leave a Reply” box below!
9 January 2007 at 10:19 pm |
Very interesting website with some fabulous photos.
12 January 2007 at 1:37 pm |
Hi Teresinha. I saw your post to the Online Guild about your web site and came for a visit. Well done. Your site is exceptionally well organized. All the information is easy to find and well presented. An invaluable resource to the natural dye community.
12 January 2007 at 4:09 pm |
Woaderful! Blue-ming woaderful!
Instantly gone into my favourites. Especially pleased to see the diary of events as I can reach Coventry and King’s Heath, so will ask for more details later. Also liked the reminders of when to sew seed, as I am apt to leave it too late. I once had a plant went into four years – not bad for a biennial!
13 January 2007 at 9:43 pm |
Hi Teresinha,
I really enjoy your website and blog. Lots of information and inspiration! I am a lone weaver, spinner and natural dyer where I live and so rely heavily on the internet for help and information.Thankyou for providing a sizable chunk!
Pam.
28 January 2007 at 2:56 pm |
I really like your idea of “printing” a woad vat scum onto paper. I do so hate waste! And a blue lawn, which is what I usually get when I skim, always in the same spot as I am too idle to move far from the back door.
28 January 2007 at 5:59 pm |
Hi Mary
There is print of the woad vat scum by Jenny Balfour-Paul at the Indigo exhibition. That is where I got the idea from.
3 February 2007 at 5:41 pm |
Fantastic site! Thanks for the encouragement of this most historical plant.
I have been studying woad for the last 15 years. Got permission for the local weed board to allow me to cultivate the plant for research purposes as growing woad in my part of the US is not legal. Would be interested in sharing ideas and process.
11 February 2007 at 4:25 pm |
I ordered a napeleon shirt from a woad company in france. I can’t wait to get it. My only problem is that I ordered in english, and any follow up on my new account is in french. So I need help from my son who has had 4 years of french to read my account status. I thank Teresina Roberts for her help in finding this website for me.
13 February 2007 at 7:21 pm |
HI, Teresinha
I love your site. I especially found the information about how to precipitate the pigment in the fresh leaves, helpful. I have book marked your site for future reference, if I can just get my woad plants to send forth their leaves in Canada!
8 April 2007 at 3:22 pm |
I got to the Indigo Exhibition at last on Wednesday. I was glad I made the effort (even though it took me three and three-quarters of an hour to get there by public transport), and can now understand your slightly less than 100% reaction to it. When I got home, I was not raving about it to ‘im indoors, as normal after this sort of outing, it just stopped short of possessing the “wow” factor. There wasn’t anything in it that I wanted to come home and attempt to copy. I am puzzled by my own reaction. Perhaps I am just growing woad and cynical.
25 April 2007 at 2:16 pm |
Thank You
3 June 2007 at 4:21 pm |
Thank you very much indeed for the website…it was just what I needed. I live very near the woad farm in Norfolk, and have just invested in some pigment…now I know what to *do* with it…
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12 December 2009 at 6:31 pm |
Dear Mrs Roberts,
I don’t know what went wrong, probably the woad being too old or the pH too low. More tries to come! My neighbours love me…
This page you made is so wonderful! I’m absolutely thrilled to find a good explanation to make the woad dye and to dyw with indigo – without the hydrosulphite.
I tried to make the woad dye with dried leaves that I had around. I’d already made them small in a blender, but still I wanted to try. Up till step 6 everything went acoording to the photo’s (with pouring soda it became dark yellow brown), but I didn’t get blue froth – froth stayed yellow and liquid some café au lait colour, and the sediment turned out brown, I think plant material, but still Í’ll try some dyeing with it. Might might might be something
Thank you for your clear description!
Love,
Lea
12 December 2009 at 6:36 pm |
“a resist that produces alternate stripes of woad blue and madder red” do you mean like in batik (I’m not native english speaker)? I know my mum used warm beeswax to cover the spots that shouldn’t be dyed. And afterwards either ironing (works rather well – use enough cloth and paper to absorb) or steaming (a steam machine at home worked even better than a shop)
Well, if I got the meaning wrong this information is pretty useless, but anyway
Love Lea