My guild had a special event planned this last autumn, an indigo dyeing day at Ossabaw Island with Donna Hardy of Sea Island Indigo. An advantage of doing this is the ability to use fresh indigo leaves as harvest time. The event was in October but the first date was cancelled on account of rain.
I worked and worked to scour (wash, mostly with washing soda) my textiles and a bit of yarn to bring.
There was also a bit of pretending to do shibori resist dyeing going on
On the SECOND appointed day I gathered up some friends, gear, and camera, and we drove to the dock in the south part of Savannah for the boat to Ossabaw. Unhappily, the day was cool and looking (again) like rain. The boat captain was not daunted by the weather and ready to go. Donna however was not happy...she had had a group the day before and the dye results were not good as the vats are sensitive to the cold. So...cancelled again.
So there I was with a bunch of clean ready to dye textiles and no opportunity to dye for another year...but then I thought...I can cheat and have my own session at home, right?
So off to Dharma Trading for a box of prereduced indigo dye kit. Prereduced = cheating, but at this point I was not willing to wait another year!
We tend to use the word "magic" in relation to indigo oxidization, but indeed it is really a chemical process when oxygen mixes with the indigo (molecules? gotta learn more about that...)
an exiting part of this dyevat was some yarn which I had dyed last year with goldenrod, now overdyed with indigo and which made a stunning mossy green!
If you want to try your hand at cheating with prereduced indigo yourself, join me in late February. The Fiber Guild of the Savannahs conducts it's "Taste of the Fiber Arts" workshops in January and February. Here is a link to our Facebook page which includes a pdf download of the signup form. Workshops are three hours in length and address other arts as well: knitting, using a drop spindle, weaving, saori, and Dorset button making, to name a few.
I worked and worked to scour (wash, mostly with washing soda) my textiles and a bit of yarn to bring.
There was also a bit of pretending to do shibori resist dyeing going on
So there I was with a bunch of clean ready to dye textiles and no opportunity to dye for another year...but then I thought...I can cheat and have my own session at home, right?
So off to Dharma Trading for a box of prereduced indigo dye kit. Prereduced = cheating, but at this point I was not willing to wait another year!
We tend to use the word "magic" in relation to indigo oxidization, but indeed it is really a chemical process when oxygen mixes with the indigo (molecules? gotta learn more about that...)
and here are some results
If you want to try your hand at cheating with prereduced indigo yourself, join me in late February. The Fiber Guild of the Savannahs conducts it's "Taste of the Fiber Arts" workshops in January and February. Here is a link to our Facebook page which includes a pdf download of the signup form. Workshops are three hours in length and address other arts as well: knitting, using a drop spindle, weaving, saori, and Dorset button making, to name a few.
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