I've Got the Blues: Indigo Dyeing

This past Friday, I experimented with Indigo Dyeing by attending an Indigo Dye Drop-In at the New Museum of Los Gatos (many thanks to a recommendation from fellow quilter/teacher Marie S).  The workshops are held every two weeks from 1-5 PM.  The fee is $25 for NUMU members and $30 for guests, and include fabric, gloves, items to use as a resist (popsicle sticks, tongue depressers, rubber bands, string, etc), use of dyes and wonderful instruction from artist Zoë Umholtz.  And some attendees, especially those who had attended previous Drop In sessions, brought fabric, yarn, lace, woven goods and even paper to dye.  For those of us who were attending for the first time, Zoë took some time at the beginning to introduce us to the Art of Indigo Dyeing.  She talked about the indigo dye and process, brought some of her own indigo dyed samples and demonstrated a variety of folding/manipulation techniques to get us started.

NUMU Indigo Dye Drop In Workshop:  Dye Station, Dyed Goods and Samples Dyed by Zoë

As this was my first time using Indigo Dyeing, I took lots of notes and tried a few new fabric manipulations!!  I enjoyed the meditative nature of the dyeing process, as you really need to massage the dye into the fabric as well as work slowly so as to minimize splashing/dripping which will introduce oxygen to the dye (which will cause it to oxidize and lose dye power).  Each batch would come out a beautiful blue/green color, which Zoë warned us not to get too attached to as it would quickly change to a deep blue with the oxidation process.  At which point, the bundle was ready for another dye dip in order to achieve a more saturated blue color.  By the 2nd dip, I was very thankful that I had only prepared 8 fabric bundles, as they each required several minutes of massaging in the dye bath x 8 bundles x 4 dips each!  

My Fabric Bundles

After 3 hours of leaning over a dye bucket, I was ready to take my bundles home for the batching process.  It was hard enough for me to wait 12-24 hours for the Procion Fiber Reactive Dyes to complete their batching, so imagine my surprise when Zoë recommended we wait 48+ hours before unwrapping and rinsing out our fabric bundles!!  Luckily I was able to keep fairly busy Saturday and Sunday morning...but by Sunday afternoon, I was anxiously unwrapping my fabrics to see what fun patterns awaited me!!

Chevrons, Octagones, Hearts, Lines...Oh My!!

Of course I just had to prepare two indigo dyed mandalas!!  I can already envision these free motion quilted with some gold or silver metallic threads which will really pop against the rich blue background!!

Indigo Dyed Mandalas

I am really pleased with the finished results!  Many thanks to Zoë as it was a wonderful learning process.  I am already looking ahead to attending a future Drop In session...perhaps I will see you there?!?