Posted on 09/28/2003 4:36:12 PM PDT by blam
Boudicca's warpaint puts farmer on the woad to recovery
By Sarah Lonsdale
(Filed: 28/09/2003)
Woad, the plant whose deep blue pigment was used as a warpaint by the ancient Britons to frighten their enemies, is to be farmed commercially in Britain for the first time in 500 years.
Large-scale production of woad, which was most famously used by the warrior queen Boudicca, finally died out in the 16th century when cheaper dyes imported from India made it uneconomic.
Now, however, farming of the spinach-like plant, which produces colours ranging from pale blue to indigo, is to be resumed by a Norfolk farmer, who intends to sell woad pigment to clothes manufacturers.
Ian Howard, who will begin planting next year, has conducted a successful trial at his farm near Dereham, Norfolk. He intends to market the natural pigment as an environmentally friendly alternative to synthetic indigo, which is made using aniline, a by-product of oil, formaldehyde and potassium cyanide.
Some small clothes designers, including the British firm Boudicca, which exhibited at London Fashion Week last week, have already used Mr Howard's woad-based indigo for their blue colours.
Mr Howard also hopes to persuade jeans manufacturers to use woad to dye denim.
"Woad is easy to grow, seems to like the soil and climate, and is environmentally friendly," he said. "I love the wonderful rich blue colour it produces and the fact that I am doing something unique."
Mr Howard, whose forearms are almost permanently blue from his dyeing experiments, decided to turn to woad production after his farm income from growing wheat, sugar beet and potatoes dropped in the late 1990s.
"I was snowed under with bureaucracy, and Blair's apparent indifference to the countryside took the fun and buzz out of farming," he said. "I was very disillusioned with farming, but now it has become fun again."
Mr Howard's decision to grow woad is particularly appropriate. His farm is on land which once belonged to the Iceni, the tribe led by Boudicca that rebelled against the Roman conquest and sacked Colchester and London in ad60.
Pliny, the Roman historian, described how the ancient Britons' "blue aspect made them look more fearsome" - their appearance created either by applying woad body paint, or tattoos etched in woad.
In the 1995 film Braveheart, William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, wears woad in the battle scenes to dramatic effect, but this is probably an anachronism, as the dye was no longer in use.
The blue threads in the Bayeux Tapestry were dyed using woad and the blue in the tapestry is the only colour not to have faded in more than 900 years. Woad was also used as a natural insecticide.
When woad leaves are harvested, in July and September, they are washed and heated in hot water for several minutes. The blueish water is then mixed with chalk and left to settle. A blue paste is left after the water is poured off and this, when dry, can be ground into a fine powder to be used in paints, dyes and ink-making.
Clothes dyed with woad indigo at first appear yellow, but as they dry they turn green, then turquoise then finally deep blue.
Mr Howard's experiments show that in good growing conditions with plenty of sun, almost 10 tons of woad leaves per acre can be produced twice a year. Each ton of leaf produces about 2lb of indigo pigment, worth about £200.
His trial received financial backing from Spindigo, a research partnership which also involves Reading University and the University of Bristol's biological sciences department, aimed at showing farmers how they can use alternative crops to boost their falling incomes.
Kerry Gilbert, a researcher in biological sciences at Bristol University, said: "We are delighted that Mr Howard has decided to go ahead and farm woad commercially."
Although woad has not been grown commercially since the 16th century, it was produced in Lincolnshire during the 1920s and 1930s to provide dye for Royal Air Force uniforms, before the adoption of synthetic colourings. It has also been grown occasionally by artisan weavers and spinners for their own use.
Your basic $4.99 per pound veggie turns quickly into a condiment of exquisite power and bouquet, and when thought of in that manner, it's quite inexpensive!
That works as long as you know that "AD" becomes pronounced "UD" after "BO" or the other tribal and clan prefixes. It helps to know that "AD" is the English "Arthur", and "DIC" always means "Ruler/King/Dictator", and "A" is feminine, making the whole thing Queen.
No wonder King Arthur wasn't terribly concerned with who Guenivere was sleeping with.
This would have been toward the end of use of the dye.
Too many machine washings with bleach.
The Battle Of Hastings October 14,1066.
And I've been waiting for YEARS to quote this song! It goes to the tune of "Men of Harlech" - the old Welsh ditty.
Woad
What's the use of wearing braces?
Vests and pants and boots with laces ?
Spats and hats you buy in places
Down the Brompton Road ?
What's the use of shirts of cotton ?
Studs that always get forgotten ?
These affairs are simply rotten,
Better far is woad.
Woad's the stuff to show men.
Woad to scare your foemen.
Boil it to a brilliant hue
And rub it on your back and your abdomen.
Ancient Briton ne'er did hit on
Anything as good as woad to fit on
Neck or knees or where you sit on.
Tailors you be blowed !!
Romans came across the channel
All dressed up in tin and flannel
Half a pint of woad per man'll
Dress us more than these.
Saxons you can waste your stitches
Building beds for bugs in britches
We have woad to clothe us which is
Not a nest for fleas
Romans keep your armours,
Saxons your pyjamas.
Hairy coats were made for goats,
Gorillas, yaks, retriever dogs and llamas
Tramp up Snowdon with your woad on,
Never mind if you get rained or blowed on
Never want a button sewed on.
Go it Ancient B's !!
I've read that the kilts worn in the movie were a few hundred years to early also.
Their mummified remains, wearing tartans, have been found in various ancient sites in China.
The mummies found in the Tarim Basin were not wearing kilts. (Celtic like fabrics, yes) Read the book The Mummies Of Urumchi by Elizabeth Barber, a textile expert. One thing peculiar about the clothing worn by the mummies is that they were exactly the same as those found at the famous Celtic sites at Hallstadt. The material, patterns and manufacturing techniques were exactly the same.
It is my theory that the people found out there in the desert were refugees from the 5,600BC flood of the Black Sea...and they spoke Tocharian A & B.
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