indigo vat

Botanical Colors is pleased to announce that we are hosting Aboubakar Fofana for a month-long 2022 artist-in-residency here in Seattle! Aboubakar will be teaching classes of West African traditional dyeing and stitching techniques as well as hosting a community indigo dip, farm talk and a public trunk show of his goods. “Born in Mali and […]

Indigo gradation from Aboubakar Fofana’s workshop on indigo.  The vat is a 7gpl fructose vat. Diving into indigo blue We have been working with the 1-2-3 indigo vat for nearly 10 years and over time made some adjustments to the original recipe from Michel Garcia. Here we share a recent experiment where we set up […]

The Iron Vat An iron vat will give you a cool blue-gray color. It is a good choice for dark blue shades. Once it is built, you can dip in this vat at room temperature without reheating it. If you want to dye wool or silk, do not use an iron vat as it damages […]

This week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY was on the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat! Presenting this week? The best of the best, Botanical Colors Founder/President Kathy Hattori joined by Botanical Colors’ team member Kate Rosendale. Watch the video recording here: We get more questions about indigo than any other dye, so we decided to update our online information […]

This week, we’ve got video from our live FEEDBACK FRIDAY exploring a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron. Watch the recording here: This time around we explored a version of the famous 1-2-3 indigo vat using iron (ferrous sulfate) as our reducing agent. This is a useful vat for achieving darker shades, but […]

This week: Clean dye studios, saturated color and vinegar post-bath for everything?

This week: Indigo painting and temperamental indigo vats

This week: How to use natural dye ink for painting on canvases and clothing

This week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY: The science of pH and your indigo vat, painting with indigo flowers and reusing that mordant bath

This week: Making a powerful indigo vat for a 5 gallon bucket