Indigo dyeing

Dyeing with indigo has always been mysterious. I’d love to have a little vat at home that I could understand and work with. But it’s intimidating. There seem to be so many options and so much to know and learn. When a chance to take an indigo workshop with Sue Grosjean came up this Saturday, I jumped in. Maybe I can learn from her example.

I would say the main things I took away from class at this point were the fabrics I dyed in class and some of Susanne’s basic philosophy and wisdom. I can’t put it into words at this point and I don’t know when I’ll start a vat of my own. But I can show some photos of the indigo lusciousness.

The first two photos show the cloth still wet, drying on the deck in the warmish air and pale sun. We dyed with both indigo and onion skins for yellows and greens. Most of the fabric I dyed is linen. We used two vats, a sugar vat made with fructose and calx and a Liles vat using RIT color remover (Sodium Hydrosulfite) and lye.

Here’s a photo of Susanne at the dyepot with some wool. She dyes mostly wool yarn, hand-spun.

I brought the fabrics indoors last night. By this morning, they were dry. Today the clouds and rain have rolled back in and the light was dreary, but the colors still lift my spirits. I’ll need to wash these in hot soapy water to finish them.