2021-Isabella-Da-Firenze-Indigo-Blues
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Isabella da Firenze Barony of Seagirt [email protected] The Indigo Blues: A Comparison of Dyebaths Isabella da Firenze Barony of Seagirt [email protected] Table of Contents Introduction 2 A Brief History of Dyeing 2 Indigo Varieties 5 Indigofera Tinctoria (True Indigo) 5 Persicaria Tinctoria (Japanese Indigo) 5 Isatis Tinctoria (Woad) 6 Other Varieties 6 Indigo Dyeing Methods 7 The Basics 7 Fermentation Vats 7 Urine Vats 7 Modern Substitutions 8 Dye Vat One 8 Materials 8 Method 9 Challenges 10 Results 11 Dye Vat Two 13 Materials 13 Method 13 Challenges 16 Results 16 Conclusion 18 Bibliography 19 Appendix A: The Chemistry of Indigo 21 1 Isabella da Firenze Barony of Seagirt [email protected] Introduction Indigo blue is one of the most challenging and, in my opinion, rewarding, colours to dye. Not only is the historical method of making this dye difficult, but the chemistry behind the indigo plant is a fascinating look into the mystery of nature and the creativity of humanity. It is for these reasons, as well as the personal challenge to myself, that I decided to submit a process piece looking into the production of indigo dye for Tir Righ Arts and Sciences A.S. 53. While my original vision was to complete several dye vats using both indigo powder and indigo plant matter, due to some hiccoughs with growing my own plants I was forced to scale back the project and focus on comparing a modern chemical vat with a historical fermentation vat. This still provided a worthy challenge and plenty of opportunity for experimentation with different fiber types. The final product of this project was the dyeing of Egyptian linen in two different shades of blue to be used in my second project: a process piece on the re-creation of a knitted Egyptian sock motif. A Brief History of Dyeing Humankind has been adding colour to their lives for centuries. Whether trying to accurately depict the real world in cave paintings, or mimic natural colours in their wardrobes, we have borrowed colour from natural sources from prehistoric times up to, and past, when we discovered the ability to synthesize those colours and dozens of others. There are extant examples of dyes being used as far back in our history as Ancient Egypt (an indigo garment was excavated in Thebes, dating back to 2500 BCE1), as well as literary references to dyed fabrics in the Christian Bible (Exodus 35:252) and in the works of the ancient Greeks and Romans (Herodotus, writing in about 450 BCE3 or Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia around 78 CE4). Over time, sources for different colours were discovered, colours were mixed to learn new ones, and many different types of fibers and fabrics were dyed according to various methods. This was a universal process that occurred over and over across the entire world as humanity’s natural curiosity pushed previously known limits and we continued to learn bigger and better ways of doing things. 1 Anne Mattson, "Indigo in the Early Modern World," University of Minnesota Libraries, accessed September 06, 2018, https://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/tradeproducts/indigo. 2 And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. 3 Cynthia Clark Northrup, Encyclopedia of world trade. from ancient times to the present (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2015), 506. 4 "Pliny the Elder, The Natural History," Book 35, Chapter 27, accessed September 06, 2018, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=1. 2 Isabella da Firenze Barony of Seagirt [email protected] While dyeing textiles and the use of colour in cosmetics was common across the globe for centuries, European dyers reached the height of their skill in the thirteenth century, mainly due to the guild systems which maintained a high standard of quality. In some places it was forbidden to possess, let alone use, major dyestuffs unless you were a member of a guild. In Germany, the dyers and woad workers were regulated by the guilds, with each grower having to present his crop to a “sworn dyer” to determine its quality, weight and condition before it could be sold.5 English producers of woad had fewer restrictions: mainly that of a proclamation first made in 1585 (though it was amended later) to ensure that no woad mills were sited within four miles of any market or clothing town, or within eight miles of a royal residence, because of the highly offensive odor they emit.6 In 1377, dyers in Florence, Italy founded the Dyers’ Guild after they refused to work with the Weavers’ Guild and their rulers acknowledged that the “craft of dyeing was of equal important with other crafts.”7 However, even with that proclamation, the dyers remained under the “strict and often cruel jurisdiction of the weavers and cloth merchants,”8 and the 1377 guild was dissolved in 1382. The Florentine dyers often emigrated to other Italian cities such as Venice, which were more sympathetic and had their own flourishing dyers’ guilds.9 One of the long-lasting products of a Venetian dyers’ guild was the 1540 publication of Giovanni Ventura Rosetti’s Plictho de Larte de Tentori10 which contained the recipes of the Venetian Dyers’ Guild and was a working reference for dyers until the end of the 17th century.11 According to Stuart Robinson, author of History of Dyed Textiles, the dyers were formed into three groups: The first and largest was that of the black or plain dyers who worked from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., had three years' apprenticeship, five as a workman and three of travel before passing stringent tests to become a master craftsman in a guild system. They specialized in black and all simple colours. The second was reserved for the individual dyers of high colours on expensive materials using rarer dyestuffs. They were the outstanding masters of the craft and relatively few in number. The final group was a specialist one for the dyers of silk, particularly strong in France and Italy; they were regarded as individual artists and not of a guild.12 5 Su Grierson, Dyeing and Dyestuffs (Aylesbury: Shire, 1989), 8-9. 6 Frederic A. Youngs, The Proclamations of the Tudor Queens (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 151. 7 Stuart Robinson, A History of Dyed Textiles: Dyes, Fibres, Painted Bark, Batik, Starch-resist, Discharge, Tie-dye, Further Sources for Research (London: Studio Vista, 1979), 28. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Spelling and date as per Robinson, 28 - other sources write it as Plictho de L’arte de Tentori or Plictho del Arte de Tentori and give a date of publication of 1548. 11 Robinson, 28. 12 Robinson, 28. 3 Isabella da Firenze Barony of Seagirt [email protected] Indigo itself was used in Ancient Egypt circa 2500 BCE, and was common throughout India and Asia. In Europe, the colour was derived from the woad plant (Isatis tinctoria) instead. There are “records written in Sanskrit, describing various methods of preparation, [and] has been known to the people of Asia both as a dye and as a cosmetic, for over 4000 years.”13 However, for centuries, any kind of blue pigment was called indigo. The real characteristics of indigo were not widely known until the 14th century,14 particularly in Europe, and people continued to believe indigo was a mineral, as shown by a British patent granted in 1705 for obtaining indigo from mines.15 Much of this was due to the fact that influential woad growers and distributors lobbied successfully to prohibit indigo importation in Europe for more than a century. In 1577, an English local governing body declared that indigo was “prohibited under the severest penalties”16 and it was described as “the newly invented, harmful, balefully devouring, pernicious, deceitful, eating and corrosive dye known as ‘the devil’s dye,’ for which vitriol and other eating substances are used instead of Woad.”17 The proclamation was renewed in 1594 and again in 1603. Other countries made their own proclamations against indigo, but such measures proved futile and it quickly superseded woad as the preferred source of indigo blue. The art of dyeing was accidentally revolutionized in 1856 by a chemical student named William Henry Perkin, who, while experimenting with aniline,18 made the first artificial dye: mauveine.19 These first synthetic dyes, when compared to the natural dyes that preceded them, were found to be “hard, coarse, crude, and very inartistic.”20This was often remedied by mixing shades to soften them. However, these first dyes were not terribly light fast and did not fade true - a bright red might, after a few days, fade yellow, or white, or become a darker shade.21 By 1868, however, two German chemists manufactured alizarine22 and created a whole new class of dyestuffs that were fast to both light and washing.23 With the advent and development of colour fast synthetic dyestuffs, natural dyeing became less common, and for some colours non-existent, as it was more expensive and difficult to replicate on a large scale. However, it is experiencing a resurgence as people find an interest in it once again. 13 William F. Leggett, Ancient and Medieval Dyes (Brooklyn, NY: Chemical Publishing, 1944), 17. 14 Ibid. 20-21. 15 S. L. Kochhar, Economic Botany a Comprehensive Study (Delhi, India: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 525. 16 Leggett, 27. 17 Ibid. 18 A colourless, oily liquid made, in this case, from distilling indigo (Pellew, 40).