How to dye with fresh indigo leaves
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- Опубликовано: 14 окт 2024
- This week I began harvesting some of the leaves from the indigo plants that I have been growing in my dye garden. I wanted to use them with salt to rub directly onto some silk fabric to make a scrunchie for my daughter.
This is a technique that there are a lot of videos about, I think I first saw it three or so years ago in this video by @billynou • HOW TO DYE WITH INDIGO...
But as the technique requires fresh leaves, and indigo plants are tender, I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. Then gradually I saw people growing indigo in the South of England and in 2020 had made plans to go down to a workshop in Sussex that had to be cancelled.
However, last year Elisabeth Viguee Culshaw started an indigo growing project at Glasgow Botanic Garden and I was able to attend one of her workshops where we had a chance to try the salt rub method
thelansdowneho....
I would also recommend the lessons by Liz Spencer @LizSpencerTheDogwoodDyer
🌱 I am a textile artist working in rural Scotland. I am inspired by the landscape surrounding my Studio, right at the gateway to the Scottish Highlands. I run a membership community that helps people rekindle their creativity through reconnecting to the natural world.
🌱 You can find out more about my work here www.snapdragonlife.com
What a magical process and result, Jane! Such a pretty colour, and how lovely to be using up some of your wedding dress fabric for your daughter. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Jane x
It was interesting learning about this process and the colour of the fabric is lovely.
It’s a very pretty shade isn’t it?
Such a beautiful colour! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and creativity.
Thanks Solveig - it is a very luminous shade. X
Hi Jane, did you know that you can put the stalks, that are left over, in clean water. They will root very quickly and give you very nice new plants to experiment with. And did you know that the fresh leaves from the japanese indigo can give you pinks and purples, yellows, greens, and of course different kinds of blues. Al from the same plant. I can't wait for my dye season to begin. Love to see someone from the other side of the channel enjoying dyeing from their surroundings as much as I do. Love from Holland
Isn’t indigo amazing? I once read a quote that said ‘my indigo plants exhausted me before I exhausted them’ and I completely understand that!
New to me and very interesting indeed💚💙🩵
Thank you Claire. I’m glad that you enjoyed watching x
I thought you had bad circulation when I first saw your hands. 🤣
It looks like that doesn’t it!? Better gloves next time!
What a lovely video and beautiful outcome. I don’t think you mentioned any mordant… is it not necessary for this process?
Hi Jane. No it isn’t - with protein fibres (silk, wool) you don’t need a mordant. With cellulose fibres (cotton, linen) some people use a soy bath to coat the fibres in protein. This is a binder, rather than a mordant, but to all intents and purposes used in a similar way. I would like to see if other milks work as a binder - as soy is not growable here but I can get ‘surplus to requirements’ milk fairly easily.
Thankyou so much for explaining
Oh wow, this is beautiful. I really love the colour and the whole process is very exciting. My mind is buzzing now with ideas and the potential to grow some indigo. Thank you for a such a lovely video and explanation.
@@karenbkr803it is a half hardy annual (here as killed by frost) so grow exactly as you would amaranthus or cosmos.
@@snapdragonlifethank you.
Hi Jane - lovely colour. I have grown some indigo this year too but my plants are smaller than yours. Im thinking maybe I could overwinter them on windowsill? How colour fast do you think this process will be? Also how much quantity of plant material would you need to make a small vat and is this something you might do? xx
I know that there was some fading on the piece that I dyed last year - but it wasn’t drastic and it was just a lightening rather than a change of colour.
I think that I would be disappointed with a vat - you need so much plant material to get a deep colour. My friend Kat and I may do a vat with beetroot from her garden as the sugar source (we saw this online!). I shall dry all the crop I have left in September and that then may end up in a vat.
If you post these questions in the Studio forum I can answer them more fully and other people may be able to chip in too.
For those of us who live on another continent, which particular indigo plant is this? I understand there are several used in different cultures. I also have read so much about dyes and done workshops, collected dye plants, yet have such resistance to actually using them. Must do some inner digging to find out…thanks for this!
These are Japanese indigo - persicaria tinctoria - I sowed both the long leaf and senbon varieties but muddled the trays and do not actually know which is which. These seem to be the ones which will grow successfully in the UK.
Thank you! I’ll give them a try, if we can get it here in Australia. During the lockdowns I watched a number of RUclips videos of traditional Japanese indigo dyeing. Mesmerising colour. Thanks again for your posts, they lift my day!
Lovely video! Can I ask where you get your indigo seeds from?
I got them from here www.naturesrainbow.co.uk/shop/. The most important thing is that they are new season’s seeds - so harvested this autumn. X
Hi Jane, luv'ly video, i think i have some seeds but i cannot find the "links" you talked about. can you guide me please. Thank you.....
Hi Andrea. I’ve linked to three people who do salt rub indigo online teaching in the blurb under the video. You need fresh leaves to do it though - so will either need some already or find a class near to you.
hello very nice lady very beautiful videos and very nice sweaters please kindly film how to fix sew a hole in the sweater by using thread and the sewing machine please kindly let me know ok?thank you very much 😊