Pastel

In the Gascogne village of Lectoure there is an enterprise that is devoted to the blue color derived from pastel in French or woad in English. They are trying to revive growing woad as a crop and then using the colorant for making paint (low VOCs), dyeing fabrics, selling pigment for artists, and they also use the plant oils for making skin care products. All of it is bio or organic. We stopped in their shop in Toulouse last year, and Sunday on the way back from Castelsarrasin we took a detour to their headquarters. Because it was Sunday only the shop was open, but we got to walk around the site which is an 18th century tannery. The owners are truly hooked on the idea of blue from the pastel plant. Pictured in the photo is their Jaguar that they had painted blue using their pastel pigment. The second photo shows the woad plant in seed.