"Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble" is a famous incantation from Shakespeare's play Macbeth, spoken by the 3 witches as they brew a potion in their cauldron. The phrase is often used to evoke a sense of dark magic, but in this case it is more like “Bubble, bubble; toil and Magical Indigo!”
This week I have been dyeing with indigo and spending time with my indigo cauldron aka indigo vat. Dyeing with Indigo is magical ! You can create all different kinds of blues through a living fermentation process that does not require any mordant. This fermentation process so callled “reduces” the Indigo, changing it from blue to yellow. In this reduction phase, it dissolves into an alkaline environment in which any fibre ornuarn can be added to the solution or as it is also called a “vat”. When you immerse the fibres into the vat and carefully take them out, exposing them to oxygen, the bright green hues change into mermaid teals and slowly the air changes the colour into a deep and rich hue of blue: indigo.
its even more magical when you have grown the plants yourself, harvest the leaves and start working them into a fermentation vat.
I started with combining indigo with madder root, wheat bran and soda ash together, adding them to warm water. Keeping your vat warm is very important: remember you are creating a living fermentation process. Cold is a killer๐ I use the same heat for making yoghurt for example or brewing beer, same principle..lol you can use a light bulb underneath the vat or a heat mat. Do not put the vat in direct sunlight because that will cause it to overheat!
It takes time for the vat to ferment : about a week more or less and you can renew it in say 4 days after The vat lasts a long time. In traditional cultures where they do lots of dyeing with indigo, like Japan, there are vats of over 100 years old. The vat is “renewed” with more Indigo and the other ingredients in proportion, whenever the dye value weakens. Then let sit a few days to re-ferment. Indigo dyeing by this natural fermentation method is a slow-steady process.
You have to gently stir the vat once a day. The idea is to integrate the undissolved Indigo, madder and bran that settles to the bottom, back into solution. And to do this without incorporating air into the vat. When not stirring or dyeing with your indigo vat, it should be covered so there’s no air contamination. The less air between surface and lid the better. Preferably do not have more than 5cm of air between the lid and the surface of your indigo vat otherwise it will not reduce properly! An aide indigo vat will not reduce properly and will leave indigo powder on your yarn and fibre which will wash out or rub off on your skin! Not a good sign๐
The vat is ready for dyeing when:
- It develops a coppery film on the top of the vat.
- The liquid, lifted carefully in a glass jar, will be what I call “mermaid green blue
Indigo dyeing:
- Wet your fibre very well in warm water.
- Put on rubber gloves! The strong alkaline vat will irritate your skin.
- Enter the fibre (yarn/fabric) into the vat very carefully, to avoid adding any air to the vat. Now the fibre must be “worked” in the vat, under the surface. Hold it under the surface! do not stir and do not add any air to the vat. Squeeze the yarn or fibre out underneath the surface.
- After several minutes, carefully and slowly raise it out of the vat, squeezing the excess Indigo solution back into the vat. Do this squeezing as close to the surface as you can, as dropping liquid will bring air into the vat.
- The fibre should be a bright clear mermaid green. It will start to turn blue in the air immediately. Lay it out on newspaper and let it air for 20 minutes. Repeat the dips up to five times for dark Indigo Blue. Air between each dip. For lighter shades, fewer dips are needed.
- Rinse well. Then leave the fibre to air overnight. Soak and do a final rinse in the morning.
After you have finished dyeing with your vat and only lighter blue indigo shades are achieved, it is time to renew your vat, that is adding more ingredients as I stated above and let it ferment for a few days and then it is ready to start the indigo magic again! You can keep you indigo cat for years!
Remember it is a living process, so you have to keep it going! You can turn the heat source off and let it go cold but not for too long. It will get very “upset” that way..lol it’s also a good idea to exhaust the vat before you leave it to rest because otherwise it can over ferment and that will ruin any indigo that is still left in the vat.
i hope you enjoyed this little rhapsody in blue. I have dyed lots of different fibres with indigo this week and you can see all the different hues the different bases show. It truly is a magical dyeing process!
have lots of fun exploring all the new fluff this week on www.ixchel.com.au !
big fluffy indigo hugs
charly