HERB - woad musings

[dwilson]

>SNIP<
Now as to getting any dye out of it, I worked for what seemed like forever
and got nothing but blue green.  I can't seem to get the plant stuff out of
the dye stuff.  A nice colour but not what we wanted.
>SNIP<

  When I process woad I rip it in to 2-3 inch pieces so I don't get to much
green stuff.  I tried grinding it up first, once and could not separate out
the chlorophyll.
  I should be polishing jewellery for an event I am going to this weekend
http://pages.globetrotter.net/sauteur/investiture/ but I have gotten
distracted with this woad thread :-)
  I have spent this last summer growing and processing woad with small
successes.
  Growing the woad was easy.  Regular leaf feedings of water soluble
(10-10-10)fertilizer on my clay soil.  It rained all summer.  Grew like a
weed.
  The processing went like this. I divided my crop in to roughly three
batches over the summer. The woad will come back stronger after each
harvesting.
  First I dried some leaves for latter use.
  Second I fermented some ground wet woad until I could make balls out it,
then dried the balls. The largest ball is 6 inches (This is a period step I
believe) This coming summer, I plan to compost the balls anaerobicly (with
out air).  I believe this will produce a more period dye.
  Third batch (I used a few more plants this way than the other ways) I used
the following process http://members.nbci.com/wendysweb/SCA/woad/  and ended
up with two table spoons of dye.  I think.
  I cant seem to get it (The refined indigo I have produced this year) to
dye any thing yet.  I tried to use ammonia to  dissolve it but it only
suspends it.  Any suggestions?
Sheepstealer
This years woad page (in progress)
http://members.nbci.com/wendysweb/SCA/woad/woad2000


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