MORDANT
Wild Word Friday!
Eons ago someone (I’m guessing it was a woman.) discovered that if you boil certain plants in water, the resulting “tea” can dye string or yarn or fabric. Archaeologists have found bits of tartan plaid fabrics in central Europe that have been carbon-dated to circa 800 B.C. [Women’s Work by Elizabeth Wayland Barber] Creating a plaid fabric requires a pretty sophisticated knowledge of dyes and MORDANTs.
A MORDANT is a mineral salt used to set dye colors so they don’t fade. The word MORDANT comes to us via Old French from the Latin, mordere, to bite. The idea is that the MORDANT bites the color into the yarn or fabric. The original MORDANT was probably urine.
Just another reason to appreciate living in the 21st Century!
Blessings! (Do you have any other blessings, besides MORDANTs, to share with us?)
Sue
(Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Three_tartans.jpg)
