[Ansteorra] woad question...

[Mark.S Harris]

Greetings Rebecca,

There is a merchant in the SCA that usually has imported, powdered
woad available up at our big event in Pennsylvania in August each
year, called Pennsic.

She spends part of her year living on a canal boat in Europe, but
she should be reachable by email. I think she can be reached by
email at: meg at tinhat.stonemarche.org.

There are detailed instructions on dyeing with woad leaves and
a number of referances, including more websites, in this file in
the PLANTS, HERBS AND SPICES section of the Florilegium:
woad-msg          (49K) 12/30/99    History of woad. Making dyes from
woad.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/woad-msg.html

I believe there is at least one more source for woad given in this
file besides Baroness Megan.

There is some question of whether the Picts were using woad as a skin
dye or whether these patterns were actually tattoos. You can find
a bit more on this in this file in the PERSONAL CARE section:
tattoos-msg       (41K) 10/21/99    Period tatoos. Hand and body
decoration.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/PERSONAL/tattoos-msg.html

Since you seem to be interested in dyeing, perhaps these files in the
TEXTILE ARTS section might be of interest:
dyeing-msg       (162K)  2/28/00    Dyeing techniques and discussion.
dye-list-art       (9K)  2/28/00    A list of period plant dyes by
Moriel.
mordants-msg      (17K)  7/30/98    Info. on mordants. Period and
modern.

The top of the Florilegium is at: http://www.florilegium.org

I've not done any work with woad myself, but I hope this information
proves useful to you.

Mark S. Harris
known as Stefan li Rous in the SCA.

pug at pug.net wrote:
>
> I am forwarding this for a friend. Please help her out. You can reach
> her directly via email at RFarr at inovant.com.
> -Pug
>
> ----- Forwarded message from "Farr, Rebecca" <RFarr at inovant.com> -----
>
> From: "Farr, Rebecca" <RFarr at inovant.com>
> To: "'pug at pug.net'" <pug at pug.net>
> Subject: woad question...
> Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 09:28:32 -0800
> X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2653.19)
>
> Hi Pug,
>
> I want to try dyeing with woad.  Ronnie reminded me that you might know
> where I could get some since you are active in SCA and it's a natural dye
> that was used back in midieval times to dye cloth blue.  Also, I think the
> picts were named because they painted themselves with woad.  I would
> appreciate any info you might have on people in Austin who are into dyeing
> cloth, growing plants for dye, etc.
>
> I've net surfed about it, and can order it, etc., but I'd love to talk to
> someone in town who is already doing it if possible.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rebecca
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----