Roundup: Indigo Dyeing Questions

Each week, we are emailed with questions from our natural dye community asking simple and complex questions that we thought might be worth sharing. This week, we thought we’d curate as many indigo questions as we could pull from FEEDBACK FRIDAY’s past to give you something worth bookmarking.

Of course, all of your burning questions about indigo dyeing answered by natural dyer in chief, Kathy Hattori, Founder of Botanical Colors:

Why your indigo smells weird

What to do with fresh indigo

What is pre-reduced indigo

Washing indigo without felting

Getting rid of indigo spots

Dyeing wool in indigo

Dyeing cotton/linen fabric and discharge printing the natural way

After using the 1-2-3 indigo dye vat, mordanting indigo dyed skeins before overdyeing with yellow to get green or madder to get purple

How does the cold indigo leaf dyeing process compare in color intensity to hot methods 

How many times does it take to get a super dark indigo with BC indigo?

How does one dye wool in indigo?

How to make a large indigo vat that stores well 

Methods to use in order to prevent fabrics from touching the sediment at the bottom of an indigo vat if doing a long dip

How do you know when to add more indigo?

Is the fresh leafed indigo method as light and wash fast as the extract indigo vat methods? 

My indigo stock solution isn’t changing color? What should I do?