Natural dyes

In France at the end of the eighteenth century, attempts were made to confine dyers to the use of woad, by threatening them with the death sentence if they were found to be using indigo. This law has never been abolished!

It is a strange fact that green, the colour of plants, is the one dye colour not obtained from them.

Madder is a particularly good dye because it contains natural mordanting agents. During the Middle Ages, people who made and dyed hats (called hatters) frequently used heavy metals in their dye baths as mordants. As they did not wear protective gloves, some hatters absorbed toxic levels of heavy metals causing them to become mentally deranged; hence, the expression 'mad as a hatter'.

Indigo blue always keeps its stunning hue even if it grows paler, for this reason the only original colour of the Bayeux tapestry that remains true is the indigo blue of its woad-dyed wools.