In the old days, woad used to be made by fermenting woad sludge shaped in a ball. In France, very few people still make these balls the old way. It is a time-consuming, labor-intensive process of growing, harvesting, grinding the woad leaves, and forming them into balls. These balls are then crushed and soaked before using them in a traditional 'pastel' vat. This is called couched woad.
The special bacteria that are only found on Isatis tinctoria are aiding to the reduction of the organic woad/indigo vat as it was made right up until the 18th century.
 
These are handmade woad balls (pastel) Price is for 90 grams of woad ball, which is sometimes one large one, and sometimes multiple small ones.