Fiber Junkies ( my fiber group of 6) met at my home this past week for a day of Shibori and Indigo. I made 2 pots of Indigo the day before and always hold my breath when it's time to see if it was successful or not. Often you can tell by the flower that's on top. I don't know why it's call a flower as it looks like a large bunch of bubbles but it is where the live and most concentrated part of the Indigo is.
And this is a good flower so I know my Indigo will be good and strong. You can fix your fabrics anyway you want - just dunking or folding and clamping or using other types of resists. Once your fabrics are fixed, it's necessary to soak them in a bucket of water, opening the pores of the fabric to make them more receptive to the Indigo dye. (left) You also have to remove the flower from the top and keep it covered tightly as oxygen will weaken it. (on right.... before covering)
Your fabric should stay in the Indigo bucket for at least 10 - 15 mins. When it is first removed it is an ugly yellow - green and hard to get a picture as it starts to turn so quickly. Oxygen is what turns it blue...so above is fabric halfway there and below is a piece of fabric already turned completely blue.
Most of us hung them without undoing the resists. You can go either way as the oxygen will only react with those areas that have Indigo on them.
Kate had some pretty plexiglass pieces she purchased for this technique. She folded her fabric until it was the size of a small square, put a template on top and bottom, clamped them in place and put in Indigo.
Beautiful results and so sorry I didn't get a picture of the clamped fabric before it was dunked.
Indigo reacts differently on different fibers; I have tried all natural fibers and have had good results. The one piece on top that is predominently white, was scrunched inside of an old stocking so much of the fabric wouldn't be touched by Indigo. I like having some with white in it.
This was our working station with buckets of water, Indigo and other things.
Hmmmm ....what shall I do next....
Sue and Kate...I think Kates shirt was put in Indigo; she uses it as a work shirt.
We had 2 lines which we used every inch of...
Mary looking very happy.
I don't know whose piece this is but thought it turned out extra pretty.
Gen just taking a moment to relax...Where's your wine?...It was a great day, the weather although hot cooperated by not bringing us rain...always fun with my FJ friends.
Stay tuned for part 2...Since the buckets were at my house, I got to use them again which I did the next day and have some fun things to share.
The ‘extra pretty’ piece is mine…..if you look closely you can see areas not dyed are actually pinkish. I used pieces of solid pink Liberty of London Lawn fabrics…..overdyeing with Indigo since I don’t care for the color pink. The contrast was so nice after it was dyed, BUT….it still read pinkish….so I dipped it back in the vat……literally in and out which covered the pink, but also did eliminate some of the neat design. You can see it on my blog: www.marystori.blogspot.com
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