Talk: An allotment to dye for

On Saturday I gave me talk to the Coventry Guild of the Weaver’s Spinners and Dyers. As usual I took pieces of several dye plants and squares of silk dyed in different colours. One of the participants emailed me after the talk saying ‘I have always shyed off trying natural dyes before, thinking they just dyed green and yellow. I am now keen to try again and am definitely going to try Woad’.
On Sunday I had a stall at the Tolkien Weekend in Birmingham, and knight in full armour came to have a look at the dye plants, as well as several vikings and a prehistoric man.

Cutting down woad plants

Last week the woad flowers started to set into seed. I begun cutting the flower stalks, otherwise, I would have woad seed germinating everywhere on my alloment. The stalks are quite tough and need cutting in small pieces to put in the compost. This is taking a long time, and the compost heap (made of 10 bales of straw) is overflowing. I am leaving two woad plants intact, to collect fresh seeds. The next job is to dig the old plants up. I had a go with my lady size spade and they did not budge. I will borrow a bigger spade this weekend and have another go at them.

Woad in Flower in April

My woad plants are now as tall as me, and today the first flowers have open. This is extremely early, as it is only the 19th of April. Woad is supposed to flower in June!

Woad seeds

Several interesting things happened with woad seeds to me recently. I bought seeds of the Tewkesbury strain from Suffolk Herbs about four years ago, and have been saving my own seed ever since. Last week a friend in France

Eating woad in salad

I have just received a copy of Jamieson Hurry’s book ‘The Woad Plant and its Dye’ through interlibrary loan. This book was first printed in 1930,

Woad seeds sown on 11th March

I have started sowing woad seeds for 2007 dye production. This is the second sowing, the first was on 4th March.
It is warm enough to sow woad in the UK when daffodils are in flower. Watch the YouTube video here -

Woad seed impressions

I read in Wikipedia that impressions of woad seeds have been found on pottery in the Iron Age settlement of Heuneburg, Germany. This inspired me to experiment with pressing woad seeds onto freshly made paper. The seeds leave a detailed impression; the little tail at one end and the ridge in the middle of the seed are both clearly visible.

The seeds also leave a faint blue glow on the reverse of the paper that surrounded the seed.

Woad coat by James Walters

While exchanging website links with the Knitting and Crochet Guild, the webmaster, James Walters, he told me about his Woad Coat. You can see the coat here.

‘My Woad Coat yarn is a complete mixture, Teresinha, and something of a deliberate dyeing experiment.

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,