The Indigo Vat

I finally got around to making up the indigo vat.  At first I thought I'd screwed it up.  Where was the bloom?  What is it supposed to look like?  I am a tentative explorer, and since I am mostly self-taught, I have to rely on sheer moxy.  What the hell, I thought, if it doesn't have a "bloom", maybe it will still work.  So I over-dyed a very blah April Cornell smock coat I found at Ragfinery, and then did the remaining yardage of a beautiful piece of bamboo/cotton I bought from Dharma Trading.  Yes, ugly yellow green and then, viola!, dark dark dark indigo after about 10 minutes in the air.  And I still have a question about dyes...just how clear does the rinse water have to run before you put it in the machine and wash the hell out of it?  I never know, and by the rinse stage my back is usually screaming and I'm tired of being in the dank basement.  But on the other hand, I won't have the luxury of a huge cement double sink to use when we sell this house and move to a smaller one.  I love the result of dying cloth. Since I approach it with the same attitude I do travel, I have few expectations.  Therefore, I am seldom disappointed.  Fun fun fun.  I will post photos.

Oh, and the "bloom"?  It showed up as soon as I started moving the dye bath around...introducing oxygen into it.  I get it, and I'm not quite as intimidated as I was when I started.

Day one:

Formerly a blah beige April Cornell jacket
in a nicely worn linen.  Some streaks, but
I kind of like that.

2 1/2 yards of bamboo/cotton.  The dots are spots
of light from a disco ball in the garden.  They
are not on the fabric.

Day two:

Linen/cotton fabric tied with cotton twine.

I began to untie the cotton twine.

3 yards of linen/cotton.  The fabric is still
wet.  After washing and drying, the
color is a softer blue.

The Jacket Projects

And another jacket.  Materials:  indigo dyed hand spun, hand woven cotton from a Lienten village in northern Laos, 2003.  The fabric is very thick with indigo and not easy to work with.  The white hand woven cotton is from Japan, katazome, which is a resist paste of indigo, either block printed or done free hand, here in a butterfly design.  This fabric is about the same weight and texture as the dark blue.  The collar is a 50/50 silk cotton I picked up in Myanmar a couple of years ago.  The design is a modified kimono style.  It has irregular shaped pockets and "picking", or sashiko, a Japanese running stitch.  I used DMC perle cotton white for the sashiko.

Next project is to embroider my old Levi jacket.  I am doing scroll work, a moon and Tibetan clouds.