Natural Dyes: Day Two (all about the Indigo)

Today was devoted to the wonderful Indigo. We learned about the different kinds of indigo: Natural, Synthetic, and "Instant"; discussing the pro's and con's for each. I totally need to plant some Japanese Indigo plants in the backyard...

We prepared an Indigo Stock Solution using powdered Natural Indigo, "Spectralite" (Thiourea Dioxide) as the Reducing agent, and Soda Ash as the Alkali. Then we learned about "waiting". It's this crazy thing where you sit around and eventually something happens...you don't even always know when.
Indigo: The Chemicals we use Indigo: The Mixture

After the waiting was up, about 20 minutes, we added some of the Stock Solution to a large pot of water, stirred a bit, and did some more "waiting". Once the waiting was over with we checked theheat, color, and the pH and added Alkali and Reducing Agent accordingly to achieve:

1) Temperature (around 110 F)
2) Color (lookin for that Grass Green)
3) pH (Wool about 9.5~10)

Grass Green Please Incase the Indigo don't behave so good

All of the Dying Stars aligned and we began the dipping! We did once pass of over dye on all of the colors we had done yesterday. My Favorite is totally the over dyed Cutch, beautiful soft green. Holding the yarn in the dye pot for 3 minutes isn't so bad, but doing more then one skien at a time is totally the way to go!

End Product: Overdye and Straight Indigo Yarns Dips

Well the class ended, i learned a lot, and can't wait to get home and start bringing even more crafty stuff into my home/life...They're SOOO pretty!!!!

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