Indigo

This past week the indigo pot has been quietly fermenting in the basement at Anne's house.  My cream colored carpet, white paint, light colored benches just somehow didn't seem the safest place to be playing with bright blue dyes :-)

Last weekend was the 'assembly' - after having prepared the heating box (earlier blog) it was time to put it all together.  The kit is from Oregon and arrived promptly through the post.  We bought a 'double' kit so that the dye pot could be replenished for some time to come (Indigo dye pots can be kept 'alive' for many many years).

The full kit (which also contains some material samples to dye)

 The first job was to measure out the ingredients and add them to the pot of warm water.

The contents of the kit, all but the washing soda had to be halved.

Slowly adding each ingredient

All mixed and ready to cover/heat

The next step is to wait until the indigo is 'reduced' (from original blue) and ready to dye (green), the indicator is a coppery sheen on the top of the liquid.  From then on after each dye day a little 'top up' of madder and wheat bran is added to 'refresh' the mix.  Then when it really starts to slow down and only dye light shades, a fresh proportional amount of the original ingredients is added.  To put it to sleep for periods, it is as simple as turning off the heat, then warming it up prior to the next dye session.

Hopefully it will all be ready for the first planned dye session some time after next weekend.