French Dying with the plant called "Woad"

[Lynn K.]

I found this write-up of dying with woad quite interesting. The process, the history of the plant and the industry. There is just so doggone so much to learn out there I'll never get to my sewing!

Also a great website if you like other kinds of needlework!

http://www.needlenthread.com/2011/09...of-france.html

Lynn in NC but from Houston

[Margo C.]

Fascinating, Lynn! Thanks for the link!

[Margo C.]

Thanks, for sharing.

[Lotti D.]

great information - thanks for sharing

[Lotti D.]

The French are Johnny-come-latelys to woad dying, we have been doing it for much longer here in Britain, although it has rather gone out of fashion these days :lol:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Woad_Ode
"The Woad Ode"

Written by William Hope-Jones
Music by Men of Harlech
Lyrics by William Hope-Jones
Published 1921, The Hackney Scout Songbook
Language English
Recorded by Joe Hickerson

The Woad Ode is a humorous song, set to the tune of Men of Harlech. It recounts the ancient British tradition of fighting naked in woad dye, but is not intended as a history lesson. It first became popular in 1920s as a song in the British Boy Scouts[1] and first appeared in The Hackney Scout Song Book (Stacy & Son Ltd, 1921). The author was William Hope-Jones, a housemaster at Eton,[2] who wrote it some time before 1914, as he sang it at a College dinner at that time. "Ho Jo" appears in the M.R. James' ghost story Wailing Well (1928), in which a group of masters take the Eton Scout Troop on an ill-fated camping expedition.

1.
What's the use of wearing braces?
Spats and hats and boots with laces?
Vests and pants you buy in places
Down on Brompton Road?
What's the use of shirts of cotton?
Studs that always get forgotten?
These affairs are simply rotten,
Better far is woad.
Woad's the stuff to show men.
Woad to scare your foemen.
Boil it to a brilliant hue
And rub it on your back and your abdomen.
Ancient Briton ne'er did hit on
Anything as good as woad to fit on
Neck or knees or where you sit on.
Tailors you be blowed!!
2.
Romans came across the channel
All dressed up in tin and flannel
Half a pint of woad per man'll
Clothe us more than these.
Saxons you can waste your stitches
Building beds for bugs in britches
We have woad to clothe us which is
Not a nest for fleas
Romans keep your armours.
Saxons your pyjamas.
Hairy coats were made for goats,
Gorillas, yaks, retriever dogs and llamas.
March on Snowdon with your woad on,
Never mind if you get rained or snowed on
Never want a button sewed on.
Go it Ancient Bs!!

[Lotti D.]

I found this write-up of dying with woad quite interesting. The process, the history of the plant and the industry. There is just so doggone so much to learn out there I'll never get to my sewing!

Also a great website if you like other kinds of needlework!

http://www.needlenthread.com/2011/09...of-france.html

Lynn in NC but from Houston

Agreed!

[Lotti D.]

love the woad ode

[Rita C.]

Lynn, thanks for the great info on woad dying. My son is taking his project on dying with natural versus commercial dyes to the Young Scientists Exhibition in Dublin in January and he has to try lots of different plants and methods for this. I will search around the fields for some woad.

Rosemary, thanks for the Wode Ode - I thought it was only the Celts who went into battle naked to scare their opponents but it looks like the English had the same idea! I like some of the alternative last lines too :lol:

[Lynn K.]

Rosemary, loved the Woad Ode.......and certainly makes me remember the movie Braveheart and the blue men of war!

[Lynn K.]

Rita, the Scottish & Welsh are both part of the Celtic races, we sometimes say (tongue in cheek) that the Scots celts were Irish celts who had learn't how to swim :wink:

Lyn, being married to a Scot, the film Braveheart is dangerous ground for discussion in this household,
for starters Mel Gibson is a FOOT too Short :? my DH who is the same height as MG, has seen Wallace's sword, and even though it has been shortened, is too long for him to wield.
Making out that Robert Bruce's father was a leper is hogwash,
and the French princess was about 8 years old when William Wallace was executed :roll: ,
they didn't even film it in Scotland, because it didn't look Scottish enough! :shock:

However the battle scenes were excellent

[Rita C.]

Ah but that's not all - there was also Brittany, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Galicia! Seven celtic countries in all.

[Rita C.]

Wow, the things you learn on this site!

[Charae H.]

All you have to do is click on "The Forum" and the educational process begins anew every day! Loved the "Woad Ode" which sparked the need to click on Wikipedia for a definition of "woad", which led to a Google search for the song, which lead to a U-Tube version sung by someone in Buffalo, NY... and then I did a lateral move to "indigo"... next thing I knew the day was almost over!!!

[Charae H.]

Ah but that's not all - there was also Brittany, Cornwall, Isle of Man and Galicia! Seven celtic countries in all.

Galicia - I've been there a couple of times and nearly all the flat land there is vertical, so they have been terracing it since before the Romans invaded. Some of these terraces are now in need or repairs - well you would if you were 2000 years old, anyway one of the groups who were doing the repairs came across some graffiti, I don't know which language it was it but it roughly translates as
ROMAN'S GO HOME :lol: - Shades of Monty Python's 'The Life of Brian' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

(that could probably lose you another afternoon at least Charae :wink: )