Woad Natural Dye Workshop

The French are known for their signature blue, but how did this come about? The color has a long and fascinating history, with evidence of use dating as far back as the Stone Age, all due to one miraculous native plant: Isatis tinctoria, commonly referred to as woad. While we tend to be more familiar with the Indigofera tinctoria species, or indigo plant of Asia, due to the cheap and readily available synthetic version that is ubiquitous in our modern jeans, very few people are familiar with the European version of blue.

Indigo vs. Woad

As pictured above on the top, indigo powder and the resulting dye has a very deep, inky purple blue hue, with a pinky purple color found in the flower, whereas the woad below has a more vibrant hue that is laced with the yellow greens which are clearly present in the flowers of the plant.

Extracting the dyes from both plants is a labor intensive process requiring multiple steps of fermentation, both to process the leaves into powder and in the dying vats that harness the substance, and the removal and reintroduction of oxygen which is necessary to create these wondrous shades of blue. You can see the chemical reaction in front of your eyes: after the fabric is dipped in the vat and brought into the air, the introduction of oxygen transforms the color from a yellow green shade to blue, like magic. It is amazing to consider that ancient people were the first to figure out the complex set of steps required to make this happen.