19/06/2026
IZZIE'S WOAD EXPERIMENT
If you have visited the centre before you may have come across the topic of blue wool in our weaving hut. This is done by dying wool with a plant called Woad, which you may have heard of if you've watched Braveheart (they probably didn't paint their faces with woad). Woad has indigotin in it, which means that it does not react with water like most other plant dyes, so you have to use something with ammonia. What might that be? ...URINE!!
'So the process of woad dying: Collect a pot of urine (put the lid on) - leave this to ferment for 2 weeks - add the woad - leave for 2 weeks - add the wool - leave for 2 weeks. When you take the wool out, it will look like nothing has happened, however as it oxidises it will change from white, to yellow, to green, to blue. A few years ago, me and my friend Jason decided to do a woad dye but in separate pots, he got a light shade of blue and I got a darker shade of blue. It took us a while to think about why it would be different as a lot of sources say that male urine gives the darker shade. I am not a man, so we think it may be to do with alcohol consumption, I drink, Jason does not. I then tested this experiment with 2 pots of my own urine, one where I definitely had alcohol in my system, one where I definitely didn't and I got the same dark and light blue. Since this I have been thinking, is it really alcohol or could it be something else such as dehydration and could other factors affect the colour, such as pregnancy. Last year one our lovely staff members Lizzie that some of you may have met, told me that she was expecting, I of course congratulated her but then asked if she could collect me a pot of urine, naturally. She agreed and the blue pictured above is made with this urine that we are calling 'Baby Blue'.'
