Inking and Dyeing: Adding a Dash of Creativity

Dyeing was a large part of colonial America. It was seen as a way to stand out, and flaunt one's wealth. The more color you had in your clothing signified how rich you were and therefore how much influence you had within your society. Both men and women used dyes in their clothing, with the men dyeing three-piece suits and women dyeing their corsets and dresses. The bolder, more saturated colors, the better. Due to the demand, settlers began to seek out plants to help create dyes, such as walnuts, turmeric, logwood, and cochineal.

At one point, settlers even experimented with tobacco, but found it wasn’t as profitable as a dye. While many crops were leveraged for dyeing, none of them were more important than the indigo plant. The leaves of the indigo plant give off a rich deep blue color that, after properly processed, was highly desirable. With the rich in colonial America demanding it, the plant became a massive cash crop in the south. Eventually, demand for indigo reached such a fever pitch that it was exported and sent around the world.

Given the weight that dyes had on colonial America, we recently implemented dyeing into Echoes of the Plum Grove. This element of the colonial time period gives more authenticity to our game, and it also allows the player more freedom for creative expression and personalization.