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DHA 43 Special Edition – Heritage
For anyone interested in dyeing with Alder and Alder Buckthorn Bark, can I bring your attention to papers which have been published in the DHA Special Edition of Heritage? This is opensource so can be accessed by anyone. Krista Wright has written “From bark to Dye – Ethnographic black and grey alder recipes from Finland and Estonia” Liis Luhamaa “Rotting for Red: Archival, Experimental and Analytical Research on Estonian traditions of decomposing Alder Buckthorn Bark before dyeing” Both papers have been supported by the WP2 team on the Colour4CRAFTS project – my role was the light fastness testing and analysis for the samples but all the hard work preparing and…
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Francesco, Niccolo and Agnolo
The building may look a little in need of some repair, but you can see it has had status! I adore this building in the city of Prato, Italy. It was built back in the 14th Century by a gentleman called Francesco di Marco Datini. All it’s history is still within the building – the open doorway takes you inside the Palace … The artwork on the walls is fabulous – imagine what it must have looked like back in the late 1300’s when all was beautiful and new. The display boards at the side tell you about the man who had the palace built and his work. So, why…
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The Colour of War
In 2013 I started researching Khaki ready for the commemorations of World War 1. I wanted to know how they were producing the colour – was it natural or synthetic? Here’s a summary of my research, originally written to be an article for the Journal in 2016, they wanted to make too many changes so I’m sharing it here. On the 4th August 1914 war was declared and thus a requirement to clothe over 6 million soldiers in British Army Uniform began. The story begins by looking back to the Victorian era and changes in Industry and the army uniform. The British Army was famous for its red coats (dyed…
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Turkey Red (Part 1)
The term Turkey Red can be quite confusing – it is often used to describe a colour (particularly in modern parlance) – but it is actually an historical method for producing a very fast red colour on cotton cloth using the dyestuff madder. As a collector of historical dye books and Journals it always thrills me to find one I’ve been particularly looking for. At the Antique Textile Fair in Manchester in the early noughties I found one of particular importance – The Art of Dyeing Wool, Silk and Cotton by Hellot, Macquer and M le Pileur d’Apligny. It is said to contain the first (European) written record of how…
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New Year and a New Day Out!
Firstly I’d like to wish all readers here a very Happy and Prosperous New Year, wonder what lovely textile things it’ll have in store for us? It must seem like all I am doing at the moment is going out on jollies, but for now I can’t get on in the dyehouse – it’s too cold to put the water on in there and although the pipes are lagged they have a distance to travel outside and I would hate to have problems. This week we have had friends over to see us from England, planning where to go and what to see was great fun, they are more textiley than historical and…
