I've moved this from 'chat' as it is relevant to lace:
On Nov 28, 2004, at 2:07 am, Tamara P. Duvall wrote:
Ground up lapis lazuli - or at least that's what English blue-bags were supposed to contain. Lapis lazuli is a semi-precious blue stone and was the original ingredient of artists' ultramarine blue paint. The blueness of treated laundry compared to the naturally creamy white of untreated laundry gives an optical illusion of added whiteness.
The last but one rinse often included "blueing" (to, perversely, whiten things out <g>), and I have no idea what went into that.
BTW, use of a blue-bag is bad news for the long term survival of any textile as the minute particles of lapis lazuli are sharp and will eventually cut into the individual fibres and no amount of rinsing will totally remove all the particles.
Brenda http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/paternoster/
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