HERB - Re: herbalist V1 #539y

[Jenne Heise]

> Sorry, sometimes I get a kick out of the way people don't stop & think.  We 
> all learned in grade school that the "secret" of indigo dye was part of what 
> made it so expensive for so long, but if it's just mashig up plants, there's 
> no secret, now is there?

Uhm, not all of us learned that in school. I don't reemmber that hearing
that indigo was particularly expensive at all. You may be thinking of
'Tyrian purple'  of which the Encyclopedia Britannica sez:
"Tyrian purple, a dyestuff of great importance in antiquity, was
obtained from a secretion of a sea snail (Murex brandaris)." Like Kermes
and Cochineal, Murex was expensive in period because of its origin: a
limited crop of sea crustaceans.

Dyeing is one complicated and interesting art, which is why there are
'secrets' to it: I've seen experienced dyers point out that what looks
like a minor variation to the recipe and proceedure can acuse a very
different result in theresulting dyed stuff.
 
> I think dying is facinating stuff, and I may try it someday.  (Closest I've 
> come is helping an old roommate onion-dye her socks yellow.)  But I'm afraid 
> of mordants!

I can see being afraid of chrome mordants, which are modern. However,
dyeing in an iron pot or using pickling (food grade) alum as a mordant
shouldn't be that intimidating.

Jadiga (not a dyer, just a-stander-around-while-other-people-dye)
-- 
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at tulgey.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"I do my job. I refuse to be responsible for other people's managerial 
hallucinations." -- Lady Jemina Starker 

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