Lavoir Taillard
The Taillard wash-house
"blue, red and orangey yellow"

This is modernity ! Cloth had always been made with colour-tinted thread. Then in the 12th century, it was woven and soaked in dye that brought a variety of new colours! Dyers and colour merchants were encouraged to be creative while mixing processes and studying the chemical reactions of the pigment bath. The "fast dye" was invented : cloth was soaked in nitrate saturated colour, based on the composition of the water and a detailed study of the local mineralogy. This new cloth produced a variety of colours to suit the different seasons and the flow of the river guaranteed the importance and the quality of its production. Each piece of cloth took in its own colour, each different according to the type of textile and its preparation, from heavy cotton and fine pieces of wool, to jute, hemp and linen. The cloth was fulled for a few days with a wooden pestle to give it strength and solidity, then soaked in colour and the cream canvas became rainbow-coloured. A variety of colours based on blue, red or orangey yellow soak into each piece of cloth before being laid out on lines and racks to dry, high up in the drying areas. (Large drying lines are put up to hang pieces of cloth of different textiles that glow in their colours through the changing light).

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