My first Indigo Dye Vat

Greetings one and all. Time and patience have finally paid off. Here are some of the results. I purchased Japanese Indigo seeds, started them in the house and transplanted them into the garden. All of which I've shown you in previous entries. Here is what happened next:


Here my younger son Ben is kindly helping me strip the fresh leaves from the stalks so they can be stuffed into the dyepot.



The stripped leaves were crammed into by biggest dyepot and covered with water. Then they were placed in a water bath and raised to ~160F over the course of a couple hours. The pot stayed at that temp for about 1 hours then was turned off. Notice the metalic sheen starting to form on the top.



Here's the double boiler setup I used. The reason is to allow temperature control.



From the left: Tunis from the exhaust, the lovely lime color was from indigo exhaust overdying goldenrod on merino. Superwash merino yarn dyed the darkest, but it was the green hinted color found on the tunis. Next was indigo overdyed on the ugliest putty color merino batting I'd ever seen. It took on dark foresty green tones that I really like. Next came mohair roving, followed by more tunis, and last byt the merino roving seen in another picture. There are stil a few more items in the pot that didn't make the picture



Merino roving (left) yielded the truest blue. A lovely sky blue that was quite even. The tunis (right) was a still a lovely blue, but had a hit of a green tone.

As always thanks for the listen. Live well and dye happy!

Leah

Wonderful plants waiting for my dyepot!

In addition to the black eyed susans from the last post, I also have the following:

With all of the warm weather, the Jewelweed is flowering early this year. I've found that I can get different shades and hues of orange from a pale peach, through a true orange, to a burnt orange by adjusting my heating method. I haven't tried different mordants




Next come the Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers, the Sunflowers are over 10 feet tall and still growing. I've never used the sunflowers, but I've been told you can get a dark purple/black from the seeds, but that waits to be seen. I planted some other sunflowers for the birds, but I'm planning on using the seeds from the Hopi sunflowers for dye.



The amaranth is about a foot tall. I know the amaranth gives some lovely pinks, soft to deep true pink. It worked best on superwash last year. I'm planning on trying it on a variety of fibers this year.



The next one is Sulfur Cosmos, just beginning to open. Not only am I planning on dying with the flowers, but I think I'll try to use the leaves as well. The one in the picture is already showing a deep yellow/orange. I can't wait to see a whole plot of them in bloom!


Last but not least come borrage and rhubarb. I'm going to try using leaves for mordanting and roots for dying. I can't wait to see what I get.



I also have plans for bindweed, peppermint, ivy, ferns, milkweed, queen anne's lace, goldenrod and raspberry leaves. I also collected a whole bag of the inner layer of birch bark. Its a dark maroon when I gathered it and its changed to a brown as it dried. I am hoping the color will return when I cook it.

I'll show you pictures as things come out of the pots!

Way to long between postings, SORRY!!!-

I have been SOOOO busy lately. All the things I planted earlier in the season are growing like mad. Coreopsis Tinctora has come and gone, as have poppies. The sunflowers and black eyed susans are coming on hot and heavy. Take a look!

The first picture is a solar dyebath of Coriopsis Tinctora. It looks just about done I plan to heat the bath, and add premordanted fiber (alum only), After its dyed, I'll add a small bit of soda ash to sweeten the pot, and then readd to fiber to "blossom" the reds.

Picture 2 is the wildflower dye garden. The poppies and coriopsis tinctora are nearly done. The Black Eyed Susans are coming on STRONG!!!

Picture 3 is what the indigo looks like wet (dark green) on unmordanted yarn. From the left: Shetland Wool, Tunis Roving, and a lovely corriedale batt.

Picture 4 shows what it looks like dry. This time on unmordanted Mohair locks and on Merino/Nylon Superwash. In real life it looks very teal. Some bluegray and some gray green.

Picture 5 is the indigo patch. Not all the leaves had blue spots. I wonder if that caused the increased green tones.