Dyeing Yarn with Woad Pigment Powder
Note before reading: This blog was written in 2017, when I was studying for my MA (hence the Harvard referencing!). Where needed, I have edited these posts to correct any factual inaccuracies. This post was last edited Jan 2025.
There is a chapter on dyeing with woad and indigo in my 2023 book Dyeing Yarn Naturally - buy a signed copy here! (Also available from all good online and physical booksellers).
Over the weekend, I made my first woad vat. It's a fairly complex process, so I followed the method here provided with the woad extract powder I ordered. I used a chemical method to create the vat, rather than using a more traditional (and natural) fermentation technique due to time constraints. I found the process quite fiddly, as you had to keep the vat at a certain temperature, and I wasn't sure it had worked as there wasn't much of a 'bloom' at the top of the vat.
The photos below aren't great as it was dark when I was dyeing, but you can see the colour change as the woad dye oxidises! It's pretty magical - next time I use woad I would like to make a video of the process to capture the process (in proper daylight, of course!).
Burns, R. (2017) Woad 4. (Own Collection)
Looking at the finished results on a variety of fibres, the colour looks patchy in places, with a slight ‘denim’ effect. I must have done something wrong in the process. Wearing Woad suggests that it may be due to the yarn not being fully submersed, or detergent residue on the yarn from scouring. (2016, online).
I've booked onto a short indigo workshop in a couple of weeks - in the hope I can learn where I went wrong with my woad vat. I have left the vat rather than disposing of it, to see if it can be revived and used at a later date.
My methodology is practice-led, but I have also stated in my aims and objectives that I would like to understand the historical contexts of the dye materials I am using in order to better inform my practice. Dressed in Blue: The Impact of Woad on English Clothing, c. 1350- c. 1670 is a journal article by Professor Hayward, giving a really interesting history of woad and how it fell in and out of fashion in different levels of society.
References:
Burns, R. (2017) Woad 1-4. (Own Collection)
Hayward, M. (2015) ‘Dressed in Blue: The Impact of Woad on English Clothing, c. 1350–c. 1670’. Costume. 49, (2): 168-185. Available from: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.bathspa.idm.oclc.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=25&sid=c7d3cd9f-a63e-4a18-96f7-d33ac827f69a%40sessionmgr102 [Accessed 21 November 2017]
Roberts, M. (2017) Dyeing with Woad using Spectralite. [Online] Available from: http://www.woad.org.uk/html/chemical.html [Accessed 18 November 2017]
Wearing Woad. (2016) What went wrong with the Indigo Vat? Top Five Problems and How to Solve Them. [Online] Available from: http://www.wearingwoad.com/natural-indigo-dye-vat-troubleshooting/ [Accessed 18 November 2017]