A Seller of Purple

Scripture tells us that one of Jesus' followers was Lydia, "a seller of purple." She evidently donated money to help Jesus' ministry. When I was first taught about her in Sunday School, we were correctly told that purple was a highly valuable color for clothes in these times, especially by the Romans. So Lydia was a retailer of some note and strange for those days, an independent woman.

Today I became even more impressed with her ~ although there is no indication that she actually dyed the cloth she sold.

I am reading a delightful book, Corsets and Codpieces by Karen Bowman, a history of fashion from the beginnings of humanity dressing ourselves into the present. In it Bowman, talks about the manufacture of the color purple. The process "was a long and laborious  business involving whelk mucus, honey salt and water, and long-term heating in a lead vessel."

"The worst aspect of the job was the smell. The tiny shellfish first had to be crushed down (on average 1000 shellfish would yield enough dye for coloring one cloak) then put into water." It was fermented for ten days, at what time more ingredients were added for alkali and then it was left to rot again. After the end of the prescribed time, the mixture was light blue and only by feel could the dyer tell if it would turn purple when exposed to light and air. It was a long and smelly process and if Lydia had anything to do with it, she was an even more amazing woman than I already thought.

Bowman also tells of other chemical reactions that produce yellows, browns, light and dark greens, and even black dyes. I am fascinated by the idea that people took the time to mix and work with these various plants to discover all this. It would be interesting to know who for some reason when through this long process and first said "Oh, look, I created purple."