Studio Claudy Jonstra made this award winning carpet inspired by and from nature, using WOAD.
Check out the post on Trendtablet and her website and Blog post on from plant to colour……Food for thought on Blogging???? let me know what you think?
http://www.claudyjongstra.com/process/from-plant-to-colour/87
Threading the warp for the woad project. White cotton was used on a point draft.
First we set up our warp in order to weave samples. We all used a white cotton warp as this was what was set for the power loom which we will use to weave our final samples into lengths. I liked the colour that was created by using the woad leaves that had already been dyed, and felt they would look good against the blue.
Peg plan.
After the warp was set up we created some peg plans which would be put into the loom in order to create a pattern. The image below shows the sample with a similar colour that the woad leaves created, along with varying shades of blue reflecting the colours created in the woad dye workshops.
weave
weft colours
Lil & Lizzie
Different yarns
Waiting for woad water to reach 50 degrees to places yarns in vat to dye
Yarns soaking in re-used woad. After the dye has been extracted the first time a second use of it then creates a pink colour when yarns are soaked in it.
The colour comes through once the yarn is taken out of the vat and exposed to oxygen
The yarns changed colour instantly from their natural colour to the different blue tones you can achieve from Woad. Each fibre reacts diffrently, creating slight variations of blue.
Examples of yarns which have been dyed using the woad plant.
On Friday we were given the opportunity to dye with woad in both leaf and pigment form. We were explained the complex process of extracting the dye from leaves in stages.
We began with the fresh woad leaves that were then torn up to release the dye. The leaves then have to be steeped in water, at roughly 90 degrees so the water is hot but not boiling. After the liquid is strained to remove the leaves leaving the pigmented water.
The next stage is to heat the strained liquid to a temperature that does not exceed 50 degrees, as overheating can ruin the pigmentation process. As woad is insoluble the dye itself will not attach easily to the fibres, so an alkaline has to be added to neutralise the liquid. In this case we added soda crystals. After a while the liquid had a blue foam coating the surface, and a slight yellowish tinge underneath:
Once the vat was ready to use, we carefully lowered a mixture of yarns and fabric so we could have a comparison of the effect of colour:
We left the fibres in for approximately half an hour. Meanwhile we prepared the vat using the pigment dye that had already been extracted from the leaves. This followed a similar process but cut out the preparation so the powdered pigment could be added instantly to hot water before adding the fabric. Spectralite, a chemical substance, is added with the pigment. The dying then takes roughly the same amount of time.
What was most interesting with both dying processes is the colour change the fibres underwent with oxidisation. Once taken out of the dye vat both the pigment and leaf dyed fabrics turned from a vivid florescent green to a range of blues.
Our tests with both processes showed the leaves produced a more turquoise blue, whereas the pigment delivered a deeper indigo hue.
However woad is not only limited to produce blue when dying. The exhausted leaves discarded in the straining can be used to dye too. When immersed in 50 degree water as with the others, the leaves can produce a range of pink and peach tones.
Below left: an example of a pink made by using the leftover leaves. Right: A range of coloured yarns produced with woad dyes.
Although blue is not a colour obviously present in nature, it would appear this little plant has it in abundance.
A range of plants that produce blue dye.
Today, final preperation is underway for tomorrows Woad dyeing workshops and experiments.
Thanks to Ian Howard at Woad Inc in Norfolk the woad arrived this morning in fresh leaf form, as well as dried Woad balls, the traditional method of preserving woad for dyeing and as powdered pigment.
The Weave students are busy making hanks of yarn which will be soaked overnight ready to dip in the various Dye Vats tomorrow.
Hoping for some interesting results and looking forward to an exciting learning experience for all on this ancient natural dyeing process and everyones posts and comments on the day.
Please remember to bring your cameras to document and capture the event and to share your experiences of the different dye processes.
Fresh Woad leaf, woad balls and jar of pigment.
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