Morris & Co.

Borage is the only example of indigo discharge by William Morris in the collection of The RISD Museum. This type of printing was possibly the most time-consuming of all the print processes practiced at Morris’s printworks, Merton Abbey. Morris worked with natural plant dyes instead of more readily available synthetic dyes. He tirelessly sought a reliable blue dye, which he finally realized in indigo. Historically, indigo has been the most sought-after source for blue. A vat dye and a permanent color, it requires no mordant to fix the color to the cloth. An important color for Morris, blue symbolized happiness in his poems and novels and was also the color of his work shirts.