What Is Woad?
- Thread starter TheViking
- Start date
http://my.net-link.net/~rowan/crafts/woad/woadpage.html
Yep, we Celts used to use it as warpaint! Toxic though ...
Yep, we Celts used to use it as warpaint! Toxic though ...
Woad is a plant (isatis tinctura) that was once very common in britain but is now fairly hard too find (none near me - i've been searching all year!) as it has been replaced in comercial dye making with indigo.
The yellow flowers are dried and powdered and can then be turned into a bright blue dye.
Us celts used to mix it with animal fat and rub it on the skin, believing it protected them in battle and made them invisible.
Suprisingly this 'invisibility' has an element of truth. the blue that woad produces is currently used in a lot of 'night' camoflauge patterns. In the typical light that you get at twylight or dawn in britain in woodland, combined with a small amount of mist, things this colour are really hard to see.
The yellow flowers are dried and powdered and can then be turned into a bright blue dye.
Us celts used to mix it with animal fat and rub it on the skin, believing it protected them in battle and made them invisible.
Suprisingly this 'invisibility' has an element of truth. the blue that woad produces is currently used in a lot of 'night' camoflauge patterns. In the typical light that you get at twylight or dawn in britain in woodland, combined with a small amount of mist, things this colour are really hard to see.
That's why William was blue in the face, in Braveheart. :biggthump
Correct!
Unfortunately, William Wallace was around over 500 years after the celts stopped using woad as warpaint. :?:
Still, it looks good on film! :roll:
Unfortunately, William Wallace was around over 500 years after the celts stopped using woad as warpaint. :?:
Still, it looks good on film! :roll:
Us celts used to mix it with animal fat and rub it on the skin, believing it protected them in battle and made them invisible.
Suprisingly this 'invisibility' has an element of truth. the blue that woad produces is currently used in a lot of 'night' camoflauge patterns. In the typical light that you get at twylight or dawn in britain in woodland, combined with a small amount of mist, things this colour are really hard to see.
ye it did not work though because us Anglo Saxons could see in the dark
Suprisingly this 'invisibility' has an element of truth. the blue that woad produces is currently used in a lot of 'night' camoflauge patterns. In the typical light that you get at twylight or dawn in britain in woodland, combined with a small amount of mist, things this colour are really hard to see.
ye it did not work though because us Anglo Saxons could see in the dark
ChrisKavanaugh
Need to contact Admin...
Those Celts and Saxons fighting in the dark covered with poisonous plants mixed into dead animal proteins were a bunch of hormone flushed p*******s. The real men were inside, drinking Whiskey and Mead over a flint struck turf fire. They were making trade agreements ( knives, woolens and other kit) and eyeing each others pretty girls. Pretty much a lot of Bushcrafters.Then the Normans came from France 
It's the leaves rather than the flowers that are used. You have to sort of wilt them, crush them and then let them ferment into an squishy paste that's then dried out into hard cakes. To use them, these are further fermented either in water or urine to produce a lumpy green/yellow liquid ( this allows the pigments in the plant to enter a soluble state ). When something's dipped in this and exposed to air, the pigments in the woad oxidise, drop out of solution and become blue in a matter of minutes.
From what I understand of the process it's extremely smelly and hard to get right. Once I've moved house I'm going to stick a few plants in the garden and give it a try.
Realgar
From what I understand of the process it's extremely smelly and hard to get right. Once I've moved house I'm going to stick a few plants in the garden and give it a try.
Realgar
ChrisKavanaugh said:Those Celts and Saxons fighting in the dark covered with poisonous plants mixed into dead animal proteins were a bunch of hormone flushed pufters. The real men were inside, drinking Whiskey and Mead over a flint struck turf fire. They were making trade agreements ( knives, woolens and other kit) and eyeing each others pretty girls. Pretty much a lot of Bushcrafters.Then the Normans came from France
Don't forget the Normans were Norwegian in descent
Dying with woad is actually a lot more difficult than it is made out to be here.
A full set of instructions is available here:
Woad
Suffice to say it involves steeping the woad for a long time, then making the solution alkali (ammonia/urine added). Then it needs to oxidise while hot (beaten over heat with say an egg whisk for a /long/ time until it starts to go slightly blue). Leave to sediment out the blue indigo dye, and rnse and repeat this settling several times. Leave this to dry out until a blue powder remains. This is your dye.
(Now you just have to make it up into a solution, dye your material, add mordants etc
)
As to the references to the early peoples of Britain using woad as a body paint, this is probably a big myth. The extraction of woad was a difficult and time-consuming process, and was used as a dye-stuff only for the upper classes in society. Where woad was used, and continued to be used right up into the middle ages, was as an antiseptic ointment for wounds in battle (woad itself is an antiseptic astringent plant, and when mixed with urine would form a sterile dressing - which would eventually turn blue). It is entirely possible that it was seen on the fallen bodies after battles and assuemd to be war paint.
This all comes from a casual quote by Julius Caesar - "Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem." - All of the British dye themselves with a glaze, which gives them a blue colouring.
This has been assumed by many to be woad, but is more likely to be linked to the Pictish tradition on tattooing (in the same way as the Maori). this has been verified by some of the bog bodies which have been discovered with blue-ish tattoos caused by using a mixture of carbon and copper/iron as the pigment.
Right - enough from me!
A full set of instructions is available here:
Woad
Suffice to say it involves steeping the woad for a long time, then making the solution alkali (ammonia/urine added). Then it needs to oxidise while hot (beaten over heat with say an egg whisk for a /long/ time until it starts to go slightly blue). Leave to sediment out the blue indigo dye, and rnse and repeat this settling several times. Leave this to dry out until a blue powder remains. This is your dye.
(Now you just have to make it up into a solution, dye your material, add mordants etc
)As to the references to the early peoples of Britain using woad as a body paint, this is probably a big myth. The extraction of woad was a difficult and time-consuming process, and was used as a dye-stuff only for the upper classes in society. Where woad was used, and continued to be used right up into the middle ages, was as an antiseptic ointment for wounds in battle (woad itself is an antiseptic astringent plant, and when mixed with urine would form a sterile dressing - which would eventually turn blue). It is entirely possible that it was seen on the fallen bodies after battles and assuemd to be war paint.
This all comes from a casual quote by Julius Caesar - "Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem." - All of the British dye themselves with a glaze, which gives them a blue colouring.
This has been assumed by many to be woad, but is more likely to be linked to the Pictish tradition on tattooing (in the same way as the Maori). this has been verified by some of the bog bodies which have been discovered with blue-ish tattoos caused by using a mixture of carbon and copper/iron as the pigment.
Right - enough from me!
Its not much good as a body dye - doesn't leave any colour. However, it is very astringent and helps wounds to heal quickly (keeps them unifected I guess).
It would be good used on scarification which does leave a bluish scar.
It would be good used on scarification which does leave a bluish scar.
bambodoggy
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Hey Guys,
Very interesting what you're all saying. I'm no expert but I remember watching something on the discovery channel where they used not the flowers or the leaves but instead used the following:
Large handful of the bean like seed pods.
Dry seed pods for several weeks, grind into powder in a pester and morter.
Add a little water (and/or pee, I can't remember which).
Then smear on the skin, it doesn't go on blue but after a wee while it makes your skin turn blue.
Never tried it but might give it a go one cold bored evening even if just to scare the mrs!!!! think I'll leave the pee bit out the first time I try it. We've got a few tree's never me.
Good luck,
Phil.
Very interesting what you're all saying. I'm no expert but I remember watching something on the discovery channel where they used not the flowers or the leaves but instead used the following:
Large handful of the bean like seed pods.
Dry seed pods for several weeks, grind into powder in a pester and morter.
Add a little water (and/or pee, I can't remember which).
Then smear on the skin, it doesn't go on blue but after a wee while it makes your skin turn blue.
Never tried it but might give it a go one cold bored evening even if just to scare the mrs!!!! think I'll leave the pee bit out the first time I try it. We've got a few tree's never me.
Good luck,
Phil.
I think if you eat it it stains your urine blue- no idea if it's safe or not but it might just explain how they discovered it especialy considering it's one of the cabbage family and sort of looks like you could eat it,
Realgar
Realgar
Woad is also believed to contain or be mixed with (cant remember the details) some copper phospate or similar and it was believed that the woad, absorbed through the skin acted like a drug to stimulate the warriors in battle - it was basically an early form of LSD AKA VIETNAM.
It is also beleived to have promoted healing and antiseptic so another reason for warriors to wear it - although the scars would have been colourful too!
It is also beleived to have promoted healing and antiseptic so another reason for warriors to wear it - although the scars would have been colourful too!
Gary said:
Careful Gary, discussion of psychadelic drugs their preparation and use is banned
Most copper salts are highly toxic I think, way beyond giving you a bad trip, I certainly wouldnt have thought they would be using anything containing copper on wounds. Anybody know for sure?
Jason
On know Jason I just like to live a little risky once in a while!! :rolmao:
It may not have been copper - although I am sure it was copper that created the colour - maybe it is in the plant already?
Either way the effects were achieved and they often charged into battle naked, as the romans used to say, "The only thing scarier than a Celtic warrior.....is a Celtic warriors wife when she fights beside him!"
It may not have been copper - although I am sure it was copper that created the colour - maybe it is in the plant already?
Either way the effects were achieved and they often charged into battle naked, as the romans used to say, "The only thing scarier than a Celtic warrior.....is a Celtic warriors wife when she fights beside him!"
