Search Results for: indigo

A beautiful blue with ice water and just-picked indigo leaves Our thanks to John Marshall for this easy recipe on how to dye with fresh indigo! One of the delights of growing your own Japanese indigo is making fresh indigo leaf baths and dipping for that beautiful and elusive slightly turquoise shade. What makes it even more special is that it works great on silk, and the fabric really shows off the color. For this process you will need: Instructions You will need a generous armful of indigo stalks to dye a few silk scarves or yarns. Wool will also dye beautifully with fresh … Read more

These instructions will help you understand how to use hide glue in an indigo vat. Hide glue is a protein based adhesive used in fine woodworking and antique restoration and for thousands of years was the most common woodworking glue until the invention of polyvinyl acetate and resin glues in the 20th century. It is made from animal skins, bones and connective tissue and is a tenacious adhesive yet also water soluble and non toxic and not hazardous. Artists use rabbit skin glue to size canvases.  People also use it in bookbinding and to prepare certain art mediums. For textile … Read more

Glossary Indigo: Indigo is a pigment from the leaves of the indigo plant called Indigofera tinctoria, one of the oldest dyes known to humankind. It is the only natural plant-based blue and its colorant is present in other plants, including woad (Isatis tinctoria), Japanese indigo, (Persicaria tinctoria, a buckwheat) and Strobilanthes cusia, a distant cousin to the ornamental Persian Shield that you can buy at Home Depot. Indigo was used to dye shrouds for Egyptian burials, uniforms for Napoleon’s Army, prestige cloth for African chiefs and to dye denim for blue jeans. Indigo was a valued historical crop and grown and tended by enslaved people … Read more

Our friend and artist Aboubakar Fofana has spent the past 10 years building a vibrant farm in rural Mali, West Africa, to cultivate indigo and grow food. The farm is key to Aboubakar’s vision to use indigenous fibers, weaving, mud pigments and indigo to create his body of work and he is the only Malian indigo artist who grows his own organic indigo. The farm, studio and the other groups Aboubakar works with employs over 120 craftspeople including cotton farmers, spinners, weavers, blacksmiths, wood workers and villagers, who supplement their income and develop skills under Aboubakar’s guidance. The farm is … Read more