Indigo: Not Just a Colour

Indigo, the world's only natural blue dye, has been in continuous for over five thousand years. The most widely used of all dyes, and among the oldest and best-loved, it is found on archaeological textiles of all the great civilisations. Its unique manufacture and dye processes led to its use for both everyday and prestige textiles as well as for paint pigment, and has bestowed upon it special symbolic and cultural meanings. Its story spans very many aspects of life, from geography, history, the sciences and industry to textiles, arts and mythologies. In the modern world indigo is the hallmark of denim jeans, the longest-running and most universal fashion item ever known. This talk will summarise the scope of indigo's widespread and exotic history, with a focus on the 17th and 18th centuries when it became one of the world's great commodities, widely traded and in huge demand.

Jenny Balfour-Paul, writer, artist, traveller and lecturer, has researched and worked with indigo for over two decades. Practical experience with indigo plants and dyeing, combined with living and working in the Middle East and North Africa, led on to her PhD at Exeter University's Arabic Department. Based on firsthand fieldwork in many Arab countries, this was subsequently published as Indigo in the Arab World in 1997. Commissioned by British Museum Press, she also authored a book on indigo worldwide (Indigo, 1998). Balfour-Paul writes, lectures, teaches and broadcasts internationally on indigo and many other textile, history and travel subjects. She is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies at Exeter University, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Asiatic Society, former member of the Devon Guild of Craftsmen, founding member of the Eden Project's Indigo team, regular contributor to Geographical, and contributing editor to HALI journal of textiles, carpets and Islamic arts.