Woad : Blue as old as time

Wednesday was a brilliant evening. Not only was it our promotional evening with 15 lovely guests but our speaker was Angela Daymond (left) with her talk Woad - Blue as old as time. She brought along with her some of her amazing work including her Woad balls. Angela is a qualified teacher, with a  City and Guilds Diploma in Patchwork and Quilting, she is member of the Quilters’ Guild  and has held the position of National Young Quilters Officer. 

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Woad is from the Brassica family and is one of the oldest dyes. Used as far back as 10,000 years.The leaves are processed into balls and allowed to dry.
It produces a yellow liquid and after the cloth is soaked and hung in the sun to dry it turns blue.
As well as a dye it has been used as a paint and an astringent.
Boudicca and the Iceni Tribe used it as war paint. The Romans called the Ancient Britons 'Picts' which is Celtic for painted. The process has a pungent smell and Queen Elizabeth 1 ordered no dye house to be built within a 5 mile radius of her palace. This is still in place today. And the uniforms in WWI were dyed with woad.

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Woad

Warrior Paint

Weld

Weld is a plant and produces a vibrant yellow. It was the mixture of these two dyes that produced the famous 'Lincoln Green'

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The slow downfall of the dye was due to the introduction of Indigo from China. One of the colours from the colour spectrum of the rainbow but derived from a plant. It is a strong colour and mostly known for its use dying denim. 

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Woad Man Pub, Boston

Woad has had a long association with East Anglia. Did you know that up until the 1930's Lincolnshire had one of the country's biggest woad farms! Today the large Woad farm that was at Boston, Lincolnshire is now a council estate, fittingly named to Woad Farm Estate. The local pub is called the Woad Man.
The last Woad farm was in Algerkirk.

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You can find out further information of Angela  at her 
Fenland Textile Studio