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Welcome to the Dark Site | |
Welcome to the Indigo Pages. This site is dedicated to the use understanding and historical importance of Indigo. New pages and updates will be added regularly to build a wide-ranging resource for anybody with curiosity about one of our most important natural dyes. Enjoy your visit here! | |
Indigo | |
We inherit the word indigo from the Latin Indicum and the Greek indikon meaning 'blue dye from India' or more literally 'Indian substance'. This name reflects the major commercial centre for the supply of indigo across the Greco-Roman civilisation. The dye bearing shrub Indigofera tinctoria is a common plant in sub-tropical regions. Other indigo bearing plants such as woad ~ Isatis tinctoria grow at more Northerly latitudes and have a lower dye content. Such plants are still exploited for their dye potential today, making indigo a widely accessible and available natural dyestuff as it has been for thousands and thousands of years. The recent resurgence in traditional and organic technologies has boosted the use of natural indigo and woad in arts and crafts. | |
An Introduction to the Meaning of Blue | |
"Light blue is the colour of meditation, as it darkens naturally, it becomes the colour of dreams" | |
One way to view the importance of Indigo dye is to look first at the meaning and symbolism of the colour blue. In many cultures the symbolism of Blue is derived from primarily from the sky. Blue appears infrequently in nature it is seen in vast bodies of water, ice and in the heavens it is a cold colour with natural esoteric qualities. Blue is the colour of the unreal the surreal and the heavens, it is said to represent truth, death and Gods it thus stands as the cornerstone to ideas of spirit in many forms. The colour blue is often used with red or yellow, which in contrast have a more earthy character. Readers interested in 'red' can find information resources on the earthy sister of indigo, henna here. | |
We have always sought to clothe ourselves in blue to be closer to the realm of the gods, or just to be cool. The contemporary importance of indigo blue can be seen almost everywhere across the globe not least because indigo is the principal colour of denim jeans in the West. | |
"Omnes vero se Britanni vitro inficiunt, quod caeruleum efficit colorem." | |
Numerous accounts, like the one above, from Europe to the Arab world hint at the historical use of blue to stain skin for war, religious and social rites. The quote above is from Julius Caesar's The Conquest of Gaul; it translates as "All the British colour themselves with glass, which produces a blue colour." This single reference is widely believed to refer to a practice of body art among the Pictish peoples of Scotland. While one has to be cautious with such interpretations it hints at a widespread use of blue on skin. | |
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