It was a mild winter and spring is early. My woad stayed green so I will have a bumper crop this year. I thought it best to use some of the leaves stored in my freezer. A funny thing happens with woad when heat is used. The indigotin present in the leaves turns shades of pink and maroon. When a dye vat is made with woad it is a beautiful blue. This was the blue dye plant in Europe before trade routes opened to the orient for other indigo sources.
2 upcycled silk blouses were layered with frozen woad leaves, then processed in the pressure cooker. The strong dye (indigotin) penetrated all layers of the bundles leaving full and ghost prints. I love the depth created with the leaves this way. Be sure to right click for an enlarged image to see the detail.
ooooh, pretty! xoxo
That is the nicest part of this technique.
Very nice! Don’t you love the surprises?
Yes it will grow there Gail. I started with seeds and I save seed. It can become invasive since it readily seeds. Jenny Dean even has the seed giving beautiful pinks so I will be saving more seeds for the dye pot ths year.
Love the prints you got with the woad. Where did you get your plants? I wonder if it would grow up here in MI?
Gail Myrhorodsky
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