Newsletter of the Herbal Guild of Meridies

Summer 1999

Greetings all!

At long last the Herbal Guild newsletter is up and running. Many thanks to Madrun for taking the job of chronicler. We also have a new treasurer, The Honorable Lord Karl von Giessen. I am looking for a few more people to help with various guild business. First, I need a volunteer to serve as Principality Liaison. This individual would coordinate any herbal guild activities specific to Gleann Abhann, such as Principality fundraisers, meetings at Principality A & S, and whatever guild service might be needed by Their Stellar Highnesses. I also need two or three people in other parts of the Kingdom who can run meetings when I cannot be present, and help promote the guild in general.

We are required to have a Kingdom fundraiser once a year. Toward this end I would like to suggest raffling or auctioning a gift basket, possibly at Fall Coronation. This was discussed at the meeting we had at the Herb Symposium at Beltane (more about that later). Several members have offered to donate items for the basket. I need someone to coordinate this project and make sure it gets to Coronation.

As for the meeting at Beltane, here's what we discussed, in addition to the gift basket. In order to further the education of the populace, it has been suggested that we come up with a curriculum suitable for RUM. Any opinions on this? There was also discussion on what the members wanted out of the guild, such as structured classes, workshops, symposia, et cetera. Most of the approximately fifteen people present were fairly or extremely experienced gardeners. A certain amount of time was spent talking to novice gardeners about how to start an herb garden. The meeting was held during the lunch hour with a buffet table and an informal atmosphere.

Please feel free to write or e-mail me with questions or suggestions about the guild. My e-mail address is arielle@pobox.com and my mailing address is in the back of Popular Chivalry. If your group would like to host a guild meeting just let me know. I look forward to hearing from you.

So please, write to me about neat garden shows in your area, a new herbal you have read, what is happening in your garden, anything. I would specially like to have submissions for everyone for a permanent column called “Recipes” that will include PERIOD ONLY recipes for anything including herbs: medicinal, culinary or aesthetic. Send me anything! Documentable is not important, but please try to get it from a reputable source, and explain it’s uses. I am also on the lookout for cool clipart or scanned artwork to use for this newsletter. Feel free to email me with anything!

What is woad?

Woad (Isatis tinctoria) is a hardy biennial plant native to northern Europe and the British Isles that is a source of the blue dye chemical, indigotin, that is also produced by the much stronger and more famous sub-tropical indigo plant. Indigo is difficult to grow in most northern climates, but as shipping increased, woad soon fell by the wayside as indigo took over the market. Information on woad can be found on its own page in the excellent "modern herbal" Botanical.com in the Rialto archives Dye Techniques, Dyeing Leather and Medieval Books. The The Flora of Anglo-Saxon and Viking Age England part of the Regia Anglorum, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman and British Living History mentions woad, as does the page on Historical Manufacture and Use of Blue Paper and Carpet Studies in Central Anatolia.

How do you grow Woad?

Woad grows fairly easily in most areas, in fact, it grows so aggressively that it is considered a noxious weed in many areas. Control of woad is discussed along with other pests in a web page on winter wheat, the Colorado Weed Management Association has a page on it with that beautiful picture of flowering woad, even though they mislabel woad with the Latin name Reseda lutea by which I think they mean Reseda luteola, weld.

Woad is very easy to grow in sunny or partly sunny locations and all above ground parts of the plant will produce indigotin, but in fairly small concentrations so be willing to plant as much as you have room for. The dye can be processed any time with any amount of plant material, but being a biennial, flowers are only produced the second year, but in tremendous abundance. To prevent woad from becoming a serious weed problem cut back all but one or two flower stalks and the remaining flowers will provide all the seeds you need for the next season. Other than the sources at the end of this page the Rialto archive Medieval Plant and Seed Sources lists several more sources for seeds.

Cut woad plants, including leaves, stems and all above ground parts of the plants and chop into small parts. Do not finely shred or put the leaves through a food processor because it will be difficult to separate the vegetable matter from the dye later on.

Pack chopped leaves into a glass jar until full and carefully add boiling water to avoid breaking the jar. Put on lid, and let steep for 1 hour.

After an hour the water will have turned a dark red-brown. Pour the woad tea out though a collander with a linen cloth. Be careful to strain all herb matter out now while the dye is dissovled and the liquid is easy to separate.

Next, first make the solution alkaline by adding ammonia and then the liquid must be oxidized by beating air into it. Be sure to use non-sudsy, sparkling ammonia, as the regular sudsy type will produce large amounts of unwanted foam when air is worked into it. An eggbeater can be employed effectively, but an electric mixer is my choice.

Put the woad liquid into a mixing bowl and add enough ammonia to give a pH reading of 9 or more on litmus paper. Most litmus paper will not read as high as that, but adding extra ammonia will not hurt. Turn on mixer to "whip" or medium to high speeds, making sure that the beaters are not completely immersed in the liquid: the goal is not to mix the solution, but to get air and oxygen into it. Keep working the solution for 10-15 minutes and watch as it darkens and some blue particles begin to appear on the top.

The now oxidized liquid has indigo-blue in it ready to settle out and purify. Put the liquid into tall, narrow jars and watch the darker indigo settle out over an hour or more. When there is obvious sediment on the bottom, carefully pour off the clearer solution while keeping the dark sediment intact. Add water to the sediment and let the indigo settle out again. Repeat these steps until you have a clear liquid with blue sediment on the bottom.

You now have fairly pure indigo and water and are ready to evaporate the water off and powder up the indigo for storage. Pour off the water and pour the remaining water and indigo into a Silverstone or Teflon pan and let the water evaporate. When I tried other surfaces to dry out the indigo, the indigo stuck to it and had to be chipped off so I turned to more high-tech non-stick surfaces with great success. Indigo dried on Silverstone tends to peel up from the pan and can be easily removed, powdered and stored in a jar for further use.

How Does The Dye Work?

Note- From this point on the dye will be referred to as indigotin since woad and indigo produce the same chemical just in different amounts, and indigo-based indigotin is virtually indistinguishable from the woad-based product. -R. The blue dye chemical indigotin, from indigo or woad, is the only natural "vat" dye in widespread use and though it is complicated to dye with, indigotin yields long-lasting and beautiful colors.

Vat dyeing involves changing the normal indigotin, or indigo blue, which is not water soluble and will not bond to fibers, into another form called indigo white which will easily dye about anything. The indigo white is then returned to its blue form, and the now blue dye is locked into the fiber and is resistant to being washed out, which makes it a very powerful and long-lasting dye. In practice, the fibers are dipped into a specially prepared dyebath of indigo white and when removed from the bath the dye reacts with the oxygen in the air and rapidly becomes indigo blue. The more often the fibers are dipped the deeper the blue color. Thus, the only truly complicated part of the process is preparing the dyebath.

To prepare the dyebath a "reduction" reaction to remove oxygen from the solution is required along with a change in the pH required to dissolve the dye. The reduction reaction was historically done by bacterial action in a vat of indigotin, aged urine, wheat bran and other additives that was a long and very strong smelling process. This was the traditional indigo vat or blue-pot. The fermented urine produced ammonia that shifted the pH level of the vat into the alkaline levels required for the effective use of the dye. More modern techniques involve chemicals such as sodium hydrosulfite or commercial preparations like Rit brand Color Remover and ammonia or some other alkaline agent.

About This Page

Welcome to The Woad Page. I am a member of the SCA,or the Society For Creative Anachronism and that was where I first became interested in studying woad as a source of blue dye. This page is my effort to share what I have discovered over the years. -Rowan
This page is maintained by Rowan (Vince), rowan@net-link.net

For Rowan's Simple Blue Pot and recipes for Woad Body paint, please go the Web Site:

http://www.net-link.net/~rowan/crafts/woad/woadpage.html#Work

(Used with permission by he author!)

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