Monday, June 24, 2013

Indigo Fabric

I made my Indigo pot last week and had a good time with it. I've always heard about Indigo forming a "Flower" on top which is where the concentrated Indigo was; I never knew what that meant.
 So here is the beginnings right after mixing;  I covered it to prevent oxygen from entering the mixture.  Oxygen weakens the strength of the Indigo.
 I let it set for hours, not knowing what I would find...and oh my....so that's a "flower". It looks like a concentration of bubbles on top.
 The "flower" must be removed and set aside (I used a styrofoam plate) until after you've finished dyeing and then it's returned to the pot.
 I was surprised at the short amount of time the fabric is in the dye solution - around 3-5 minutes and then it's removed.  You can see the greenish yellow color which immediately starts turning blue when exposed to the air.  That's the "bobbin piece" I'm holding - most anxious to see how that comes out.
 I hung them outside for a short time while still wrapped and then thought, maybe I should unwrap them so the air can get to every part.
 It was a bit tedious to get all the string off but also exciting to see the results right away.
 I didn't dye too much to start as I wanted to see how this panned out, but I was loving the results and depth of color.
 This was the silk organza which was folded and clamped, being so thin, the dye was able to penetrate through the layers.
 This was a silk chiffon that I scrunched with a rubber band. I love the results and probably the easiest one to do.
 This was a piece of deconstructive screen printed fabric where I used a triangle shape piece of plexi-glass to clamp in place.  I think I'm going to try more on already dyed fabric as the other colors showing through are nice.
 This was a piece of silk charmeuse. It originally had lots of white areas and tiny lines of dark blue - you can see the skinny darker lines.  I thought the white needed toning down, so I went back and dipped it for under 10 seconds...honestly...10 seconds and this is how intense the white areas got.
 The same thing happened with this piece of crepe de Chine. The circles were stark white so I dipped for a few seconds which darkened them a lot.
 This was a piece of silk broadcloth which I wrapped on a pvc pipe -  I liked the results
 This piece of rayon was wrapped using lots of old bobbins. It was time consuming but I love the results - probably my favorite.  I had no plan for spacing - just wherever!
 You can really see that it was a bobbin. Now I'm working on corks, lima beans and nail screws to see what happens...til next time.

16 comments:

  1. OH boy.......I can't wait to try this!!

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  2. You are definitely inspiring me here. I was never much interested in indigo but the blues looks so gorgeous!

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  3. Love your results, blue is my favorite color. I want to play too!

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  4. Oh what fun! I've got to give this a try sometime.

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  5. Playing with an indigo vat is on my list for summer projects. I hope my results are as good as yours.

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  6. Thank you for sharing the process and your results! I love blue, so this is right up my alley!

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  7. So beautiful. I'm resisting dyeing, but you make it hard!
    best, nadia

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  8. So wonderful! I love that piece of silk broadcloth you wrapped on the pipe. The skinny undulating lines are great!

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  9. I just love indigo and the patterns you got are gorgeous.

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  10. Judy I have heard people who used Indigo that they couldn't get the deep blue. You certainly did. I love,love, love the blue with darker strips.

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  11. These are impressive. I have not tried indigo dyeing but I am going to put that on my list for this summer.

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  12. Oooh how gorgeous!!! I just experimented for the first time this week with dyeing fabric - you are filling my head with all sorts of ideas!! How fantastic these turned out!

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  13. I love your dye pieces- so beautiful. I'm so glad you have posted this- I have never tried indigo dye and I want to so much.

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  14. Now that is what I call a fun play date with smashing results. Clearly it seems you have been enticed into further experimentation.

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  15. So beautiful! I lvoe the depth of color you achieved.

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