Woad Items for Sale
Shalom and Welcome to Our Shop!
A. Woad blue dyed linen skein with accompanying white skein
B. Karaite Traditional Linen Sisioth
Traditional Karaite linen sisioth come in 2 sizes. The large is called gadol, while the medium, which has half the number of strings, but the same amount of plaiting/knots, is called qatan.
You can find the pattern to tie these yourself here
The large is about 23 in, or 58.5 cm long.
The medium is about 16.5 in, or 42 cm long.
Karaite Trad. sisioth set, gadol/large $ 48.00
Karaite Trad. sisioth set, qatan/medium $ 36.00
C. Karaite Traditional Linen Sisioth - half sized
These Karaite Traditional - half sized sisioth are in both a medium and a small size.
The medium is almost 12 in, or 30.5 cm long and often preferred by women or older children.
The small is almost 9 in, or 23 cm long, often preferred by those who want a small replica of the traditional and also working well for infants and small children.
These custom half sized versions of the Traditional Karaite sisioth, were Matthew Rolland's idea! You can find the pattern to tie these yourself here
Karaite trad. sisioth set - half sized, medium $ 24.00
Karaite trad. sisioth set - half sized, small $ 18.00
D. Custom #1 Karaite Styled Linen Sisioth - with a twist
These Karaite styled sisioth with a twist come in medium and small. They combine the Karaite style of tying, with a custom pattern of mine and a twist which is a design from Matthew Roland.
The medium is about 11.5 in, or 29 cm long and often preferred by women, or older children.
The small is about 8.5 in, or 21 cm long and often preferred by those who want just a small sisith and also works well for infants and small children.
You can find the pattern to tie these yourself here
Karaite styled sisioth with a twist set, medium $ 21.00
Karaite styled sisioth with a twist set, small $ 15.00
E. Custom #2 Karaite Styled Linen Sisioth - using only 1 blue section or string
These Karaite styled sisioth with only one blue section in the medium, or one blue string in the small, is a pattern that I designed.
The medium is almost 9.5 in, or 24 cm long. Note that the actual pattern uses 2 blue strings, being used as one section, with 3 other sections of 2 white strings in each, used in the tying to make a thicker sisith.
The small is almost 8.5 in, or 21.5 cm long. This sisith only has 1 blue string with 3 other white strings. Upon request I can make this one shorter if desired, just request the total length desired.
You can find the pattern to tie these yourself here
Karaite styled sisioth with only one blue section, medium $ 16.00
Karaite styled sisioth with only one blue string, small $ 11.00
Details you might want to know!
As you read on my Home page and What I do page, Woad dyed fabric continues to develop slowly into a brighter, richer colour. I have now observed this for 3 years. Depending on where the product you ordered is, in this developing stage, it may still be darkish and on it's way to becoming it's brighter and richer colour. I will begin trying to have a stock of dyed products that are aged, or developed, but this will take some time. This continues to be an amazing journey of discovery!
My prices for linen products have remained almost exactly the same. While my costs for purchasing linen have come down because I now am able to buy it wholesale, the price of the Woad dye has tripled and become very hard to find. Also my improvements in dyeing resulted from discovering a method for which I now have to do twice as much work in preparing the linen for dyeing, as well as twice the amount of time for dyeing. It takes me more than 84 hours to do all of this, for one batch of 60, very small, skeins.
The lengths of the sisith are approximate. The resulting tassel strings are trimmed to be 1/3 of the actual plaiting, rather than to a set measurement. The bottoms of the tassels will have a small knot in each string to prevent fraying.
Washing Instructions
Woad is colour fast and will not bleed on to other fabrics. However, I do suggest you use care with washing these items to preserve the crispness of the linen strings and to prevent fraying of the loose strings. Hand washing is recommended using warm water, with a mild soap or detergent. Do not use bleach. Do not use prolonged or vigorous agitation, to prevent fraying.
Brief Price Comparison of the Candidates of Tekheleth
This is a very brief and condensed comparison of the cost of the other candidates' tekheleth strings. The comparison is made based on 4 blue strings per sisith, as would be needed for a set of four Traditional Karaite sisith, requiring 16 blue strings in all, 25 meters. The complete comparison can be found here
These are the costs to use the same amount of blue string, 25 meters, to make a Karaite traditional set of sisith.
Ptil Murex $ 225.00
Radzin Cuttlefish 130.00
Spirulina 125.00
Woad 24.00
Indigo 6.50
Synthetic dye 2.00
Charges for plaiting a set of four Traditional Karaite sisith on the internet range from about $44.00 to $51.50. I could only find 2 other vendors selling Karaite sisioth now. I am charging $24.00, which works out to be $12.00/hr. for 2 hours of work. Both the large/gadol and medium/qatan have the same plaiting pattern and require the same amount time to tie.
So to compare only just the cost of tying a set of Traditional Karaite sisioth:
Tied by the Indigo seller @$25.75/hr. $51.50 + $6.50 (strings) = $58.00
Tied by the Israeli seller @$22.00/hr. $44.00 + $2.00 (strings) = $46.00
Tied by myself @$12.00/hr. $24.00 + $24.00 (strings) = $48.00
