WOAD

Ok, now you have a little bit of background of what we will be posting about.

...... I am totally wowed by WOAD.
If you ever had a look at my Colours Pinterest Board
you would know that I like blue and this shade of blue is just out of this world.

Thursday 21 June 2012 was Summer Solstice.

That was the day we spent woading.The woad vats were set up in the
garden of the Chateau under the trees and we took all our white,
semi white, grey and khaki possessions down to die them.

Denise Lambert, our teacher for the day, started explaining and
guiding us through the whole process. Also telling us the history about Woad.
How Napoleon's army needed this colour for their uniforms.

How Toulouse and the Woad trade was linked and
how the pigment was extracted from the leaves of the Woad plant.

It was really like magic.... when you put something into the vat
gently stirring it, after a minute or so, fishing it out, lifting it from
the vat and the item is yellow! Then you wring out the die,
open up the item and it turns green.....
then as soon as it comes into contact with oxygen..... it turns blue!!!

I still think it is magic.

After many hours at the vats, everyone had weird and wonderful items Woaded.

We ended off the day with a long supper outside under the umbrellas and we watched the sun set.