Ladies sing the blues

 I mentioned a few posts ago that I might be trying out a new way of dyeing with indigo shortly. This was first suggested by my friend Vickie a while ago after reading an article about it in the journal of the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers. Whilst I am no longer a Guild member, Vickie is an active weaver and dyer and we were intrigued by the notion that there was a 'simpler' way to use the dye rather than the traditional means most dyers are familiar with. I read extensively about it and found the best information came from the blog of Jenny Dean, well known for her informative books on natural dyeing. What was useful to us was not only the methodology that Jenny outlines but also the dialogue from comments left for her posts about this method. Even so, despite the fact that Vickie and I have been dyeing for more than a dozen years or so, it was not all plain sailing.

The basic premise of the 1-2-3 vat is that you use three items in the proportion of one part indigo, two parts calcium hydroxide and three parts fructose. I sourced the calcium hydroxide and Vickie found the fructose in the local health food shop. Between us we had four types of indigo from different suppliers and we decided to try two of them to see if the depth of colour was altered.All of the articles and blogs we'd read said the outcome of this vat was a paler blue than the norm and that because of the alkalinity of the vat it did not do great things to wool, however, one of the comments left on Jenny's blog suggested that deeper blues had been achieved with different indigo and that's actually what we found today. I had some indigo grains from a company called Kemtex** and we tried those first. The vat looks very scummy and I think that's because we did not have enough water in it. We first dyed a skein of handspun wool and got this gorgeous blue which might have been more even if the vat had been deeper. It was rinsed properly in water with vinegar added and it  did not seem to change the handle of the fibre at all which is worth noting for all handspinners. Whilst Vickie's plan was to dye wool fibres and a silk noil warp she has wound for a weaving project, I intended to just sample dye some beautiful cotton fabric and try dyeing some different types of paper as well.

We set another vat up simultaneously and used an indigo extract and I think the photo below demonstrates the difference in colour quite clearly although it has to be said that the silk noil warp was a natural beige colour and that might have affected the take up of colour. There was something significant in the timings however as the pale blue was in the vat for over 40 mins whilst that darker blue skein came out of the first vat after five minutes or so. How can something dyed for a fraction of the time have a deeper colour? It can only mean that the actual type of indigo used has a marked effect on the successful outcome of the exercise.

 So, here are the fabric pieces I dyed, the top one in the second vat and all the others in the first vat. It has to be said that we were not too particular about how we put the fabric in and removed it from the vat purely because we were just trying it to see what worked and what did not. In a traditional indigo vat trying not to disturb the oxygen in the vat is crucial, so fibres are slid in and out with great attention to detail. Today we just ignored that premise and it seemed to have no effect on the outcome whatsoever.

 I had a selection of papers to try. These are offcuts of Somerset Satin printmaking paper just quickly dipped in the vat and removed. Whilst you'd traditionally time the immersion and then remove or double dip, I literally showed it to the vat and took it out. I even put one of my papier mache nibs in and quickly removed it. It is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination as the scum stuck to things but I really could not care about that. I love the marks and imperfections on everything. The alchemy of indigo never fails to deliver.

 The tough paper with holes is a mexican bark paper that I put in and pulled straight out and I did the same with the infamous banana paper but look at the wonderful marks on it. It looks like the results of mixing oil and water.It really does have an iridescence about it.

I shall use the banana paper in a book but may well print over it first. Similarly, I could have dyed the fabric with lots of stitch resists and then used it but I decided to make it solid colours so that I can then try screen printing it with discharge paste or bleach. Whatever we both do with our samples today we were both agreed that this is a great idea as long as all the necessary precautions that go hand in hand with dyeing are observed.

Vickie went home with her samples and I still have two active indigo vats that I'd like to try again  tomorrow to see if they work as well.  I'll try and refresh them and see what happens although I have a dentist visit in the morning for a new crown to be fitted and I'm giving a talk on moth trapping in the afternoon so I shall have to start early! Whatever happens we've had a great day and learned a new way of dyeing. Trying it with woad might be next on the agenda and Vickie wants to try something with cochineal too.... bring on the reds!

** I contacted  Jenny to let her know I wanted to put in a link and she thinks the dye I used was synthetic indigo grains rather than pure extract and that would explain the colour disparity.