All of this is also true about indigo. And no, the color didn't turn back
to yellow green when wet, and AFAIK once thoroughly washed the fabric would
no longer stink. It is a chemical reaction that when finished is ...
finished.
Denise
On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 15:34:45 -0800
"Sharon Collier" <sha...@collierfam.com> wrote:
I don't know if this has any thing
to do with it, but woad was the blue
used
before the discovery of indigo. It
smelled so bad that in Elizabethan
times,
woad dyers had to be located outside
of town. Woad is interesting in that
in
the dye bath, it appears a muddy
yellow-green, but when the dyed fiber
is
exposed to air, it turns blue.
I don't know if this meant that, if
wet:
1. it turned/lost color
2. it smelled bad again
Indigo, once discovered, was
considered a better blue dye. But it
had been
discovered by the 1700's; and we
know from blue jeans that it runs, so
maybe
a chemical dye that wouldn't run or
fade was the reason for the
popularity/snob appeal of the new
blue.
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