Weld (Reseda luteola) is a natural yellow dye and pigment made from a flowering plant of the Resedaceae family. Weld is praised by ancient Greeks and beloved by Romans for its bright yellow color in clothing and tapestries. It's a favorite yellow of Renaissance artists.
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The names of Reseda luteola include weld, dyer's rocket, dyer's weed, dyer's mignonette, woold, and yellow weed. A native of Europe and Western Asia, the plant is habituated in North America as a common roadside and field weed. It enjoys the company of other plants.
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The plant yields a sunny bright yellow durable through washings. Combined with indigo it can create a range of nature greens. In antiquity weld is harvested throughout Europe as a yellow dye plant.
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In Neolithic times people experiment with natural colors. Çatalhöyük (Catalhoyuk) is known for dye-making among other artisan skills by c. 7000 BCE. Vessels of dye made with madder root (red), woad (blue) and weld (yellow) are also found at prehistoric sites.
Red, blue and yellow are the primary colors of the color wheel, from which all other hues are made. Other Stone Age dyes and pigments include kermes red, red ocher and yellow ochre.
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Black from soot, charcoal or charred bone, or ground magnetite is also used in early art. White colors include those from kaolinite and kaolin clays; chalk (calcite) or other forms of limestone.
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Reseda luteola carries the natural plant chemical glucobarbarin. The name comes from a distant relative, Barbarea vulgaris. Both plants belong the order Brassicales, the mustards and cabbages.
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Reseda luteola is the most popular source of yellow weld dye in the Reseda family, due to high levels of the flavonoid luteolin. Mixing yellow weld with blue woad creates the color Lincoln green, made famous by Robin Hood and the merry men of Sherwood Forest.
In fabric dyes, Lincoln green trends between 1510 CE to the end of the century. Natural greens and other colors are crafted in many towns, with singular hues contingent on the local flora. Coventry blue for instance is named for the color of the local woad.
Lincoln green is created by overdying blue woad-dyed wool with Reseda luteola or another yellow dye plant, Genista tinctoria (dyer's greenweed or dyer's broom).
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When crushed the yellow weld plant converts glucobarbrin to an enzyme, barbarin. Another enzyme converts barbarin into resedine. They're both alkaloids but unlike other alkaloids don't exist in the plant itself. They form only when the plant is crushed.
Glucobarbarin is the element which attracts cabbage butterflies wanting to lay eggs. Apart from this, scientists have no idea what the alkaloids are for. Many more cabbages may be crushed before enlightenment.
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Weld is in recorded use by the first millenium BCE. However its use may arise earlier than either woad or madder, and it's known in Neolithic times. In folk medicine the plant is used for pain-relief, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory and possible mild narcotic properties.
A vigorous, tough plant, weld grows in waste piles and field edges. Native to Egypt and the Middle East, it prefers dry soils and places where earth has been disturbed. It can grow in ditches, urban sites or garbage dumps, along with jimson weed.
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Weld is the most popular yellow dye throughout the Middle Ages and later centuries. By the end of the 19th century, yellow of quercitron becomes the preference. Quercitron is a yellow natural dye from bark of the Eastern Black Oak (Quercus velutina) in North America.
Historically, France is a major exporter of weld. To make the yellow dye, soak the weld in water overnight. Next day simmer about an hour. Do not boil. Let the dye bath cool. Strain. Add fibers and leave them in the dye bath overnight.
According to Gilman, Peck and Colby in the 1905 publication "Weld":
"Good weld for dye must have flowers of a yellow or greenish color, and abound in leaves; that which is small, thin-stemmed, and yellow is better than that which is large, thick-stemmed, and green; that which grows on dry, sandy soils is better than that produced on rich and moist soils.
For the greatest production of coloring matter, the plant should be cut before the fruits show much development, otherwise the pigment diminishes. Dye from weld serves equally for linen, wool, and silk, dyeing with proper management all shades of yellow, and producing a bright and beautiful color."
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During the Renaissance, artisans favor weld yellow due its lightfastness and bright color. Used in woven tapestries of Central Asia, Turkey and Europe, weld is the preferred yellow flower dye. Shades of weld can vary from pure yellows to golden shades and forest greens.
Weld can also yield a lake pigment for painting. A lake pigment is created from dye or an organic source. This is a multi-stage process of heat and natural chemical treatment, adding soda ash and a binder such as alum.
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In Egypt, weld is cultivated for fabric dye. The fabrics preferred by the ancient Egyptians are linen, hemp and later, cotton. They eschew wearing wool. In the time of the Pharaohs it's considered impure; nor is it practical in the hot climate.
During the Tūlūnid period in Egypt (c. 868-905 CE) bands of tapestry trim in wool or silk, are woven into white or dark green linen garments. Metal threads might be included for extra gleam.
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Today reseda is a primary dye for the wool tapestries at the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Giza, Egypt. Each February, the reseda is harvested for the annual wool dyeing event among all the artists at the center.
Growing, harvesting, dyeing and drying are all done according to traditional methods. The yellow of weld lends itself to easy mixing with other earth colors and nature-based dyes.
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In the first century CE, Greek writer Dioscorides lists weld as a plant widely used for dying cloth a vibrant yellow. Romans use weld to dye wedding garments, as well as the robes of the Vestal Virgins.
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