HERB - Re: herbalist V1 #539y

[Katherine Blackthorne]

----Original Message Follows----
From: Jenne Heise <jenne at mail.browser.net>

 > 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.


You're right -- indigo was when purple got cheaper, wasn't it?  My mistake.  
But I remember something about Spain/Italy & secrecy in the beginning.  
Maybe it was just "the secret of using indigo"... hey, I'm trying to 
remember a 5&6th grade "history" lesson, I may get some of it wrong.  <grin>




>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

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.

============================================================================
Go to http://lists.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.