Dyeing with woad – Salt extraction method
This year I've got into gardening in a big way, partially inspired by my wish to grow my own dye plants. I have an abundance of calendula and coreopsis, which will yield golden-yellow, green and maybe orange. I have a couple of madder plants that I'll eventually harvest for their roots, giving a lovely red. And back in spring, I sowed some woad seeds in the hope of growing my own blue dye. I opted for woad rather than the more potent indigo partially out of a bit of nostalgia for our British textiles history, and partially knowing that the plants do well in our climate.
Germination wasn't great, but the ones that did sprout, I planted out in the garden. The plants have been growing over the summer, only slightly held back by the slugs and caterpillars that are currently running rampant.
I've never dyed with woad or indigo before – both can be processed to produce indigotin, the valuable blue pigment that's so strongly associated with these plants. While I'd love to brew up a proper vat to extract those rich, deep blues, I definitely don't have enough plants growing for a big enough harvest to make it worthwhile. Preparing a vat takes multiple steps, chemicals that I don't have to hand, and a fair amount of time. But, inspired by Rebecca Desnos, I decided to try a less common method of extracting the pigment, using salt.
