Woad Harvest

Over this part summer my wife and I left a couple of plots “unplanted” in our garden. Instead we shook out last years woad seeds over the earth and let the plots be. As I had hoped, the woad plants grew up among the weeds. But last night it went down to 6 °C (43

Newtonville: Making Indigo Blue

I was very excited to receive in the mail my package of seeds from the Cottage Gardener this spring. Mary and Dan Brittain, the owners of this wonderful organic seed company, are one of the sponsors of the 100 mile ART Project. They had very kindly shipped me 360 woad seeds! Woad (Isatis tinctoria) makes

Woad Pigment: Decantoring

I usually don’t allow myself to become obsessed about studio issues on Sunday, but today was a very relaxed day and the work was very minimal, so I did a little bit with the woad. I also was looking for an end to my suspense! And, as I carefully got to the bottom of my

Woad Pigment: Harvesting

One of the very few dyes that can be used reliable as a pigment comes from the woad plant (Isatis tinctoria). It is also sometimes called wild mustard. This spring my wife planted a small crop for me in her garden and with the weather turning cooler I thought it was time to harvest some