Chicago Design Team: What's the History on Blue Dyes?

By: Andrea Schuch
Blue fabrics and accessories seem to be an everyday occurrence lately – although the history shows that it wasn’t always that way. Blue dyes were originally very difficult to produce and were used specifically for royalty and religious paintings. It was only found in ultramarine (extracted from lapis lazuli), which was as expensive as gold. Soon enough, blue dyes were able to be extracted from the leaves of woad plants. The smell that resulted from this process was so awful that it was banned within three miles of any royal residence by Queen Elizabeth I. Most common day blue dyes are synthetic and originated in 1724 by accident when a chemist mixed potash with iron sulphate intending to make red. Using synthetic dyes made access to the once very pricey color reasonable and thus it began entering households of the everyday consumer. Popular collectibles - blue and white porcelain is made using white porcelain or pottery and a blue pigment – usually cobalt oxide. The decorations are commonly applied by hand, stenciling or transfer-printing. Blue fabrics are made with a synthetic blue dye. Fabrics used to be dyed with indigo but indigo needs to go through a chemical change to be water soluble for dying. You can purchase indigo that has been processed into free dried crystals that you could add to warm water which will allow you to dye blues.
Today, we know this color as many people’s favorite color and can easily sell this color to many different clients. Below are some of the many blue fabrics we have here at CDT. Be sure to notice the new Stroheim blue and white