Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Indigo!


Hemp hand-dyed in indigo

Hi, Everyone ~ Here's a look at what we've been up to recently in the dye room at our East Hill Farm studio.I had purchased some pre-reduced indigo crystals from John Marshall  when I took a katazome class from him, and we used them to make a beautiful, mysterious pot of indigo. The picture shows you yards of 100% hemp fabric hanging to set. We will be washing it this week and some of the color that wasn't accepted by the fabric will rinse away. If we like the end result, we'll keep it. If we want something more intense, we'll dip it again, and repeat the process as many times as needed. You can also see a pair of nylon tights one of our apprentices dipped in the bath. Indigo colors both natural and man-made (un-natural ?) fibers.

We have plans for all that hemp yardage.  Our apprentice, Gabe, will be cutting and sewing up some Japanese field pants based on a traditional pattern for using narrow width fabric.  You will be able to see these later this summer in the East Hill Gallery.

Dharmatrading.com is another place to source the pre-reduced indigo crystals if you're interested in dyeing with indigo yourself.  They also have one of their "Did you know?" e-newsletter series on indigo; it offers some fascinating details about the plant and its history as a dye for fiber.

We'll keep you updated on the indigo hemp and other items we may decide to dip in the indigo pot as we go through early spring in the next few weeks.

Be sure to "like" us on facebook.  Our name there is naturalfiberclothiingdesigns (2 i's intentional )

Happy month of March ~ Claudia