Natural Dye Interest Group

This month we will be using fresh indigo to get a range of blue and green colors on silk. In addition to indican, the indigo and indirubin precursor, Japanese indigo contains kaempferol, a yellow dye also known as indigo yellow. Bring your freshly harvested Japanese indigo leaves and a few pieces of silk to explore blues, greens, and yellows that you can get from fresh indigo leaves with a simple blender method using one bath, with temperature changes but without adding chemicals to the bath.

If you haven't joined the us for the study group we pick one topic each month which is led by one of the natural dyer's in our group. This is not a class and does assume a basic familiarity with natural dyeing. We do recommend that you have taken a class or done some research so you can  have a  satisfactory experience.

What to Bring: 4 pieces of scoured silk for 4 colors. Mordant the silk for 3 of the colors, leave one unmordanted. Weigh your fiber and bring fresh leaves at least 5x the total weight. The silk can be in any form—fiber, yarn, ribbon, hankies, scarves, or a cloth or two partially mordanted with resists to go in all of the baths. These techniques have not been tested on Indigofera suffruticosa; of course you may bring them to try, but be aware that I have found no mention of the presence of yellow in any documentation.

Hosted by Eileen Hallman

Social distancing and mask wearing will be observed.