Natural Dye Interest Group

Indigo!

Look ma, no mordant!

We know of the dark blue of blue jeans, and the somewhat involved process used to obtain it. But with fresh and dried leaves, it is possible to get lighter, brighter blues just with water and leaves. The fresh techniques perform best on silk and nylon, and while it also works on other protein fibers, the colors are pale to nonexistent on cellulose.

We will make the basic blue blender bath from leaves we harvest from the Local Cloth dye garden. Then we will make a purple bath by boiling.

For any indigoid, no mordant is needed. For colors other than blue, either temperature or other chemicals are needed. We will use dried Indigofera tinctoria leaves and temperature to get purple.

While we are waiting for the baths, we will use an embossing machine to press the color out of some leaves, onto cotton.

As usual bring some handwork with you as well as any show and tell you have.