fourth dip and a find

close to blue jean blue

sorry people for my insistence with the aizome, but you have to understand me. been trying to run a successful vat for over nine summers, yes nine summers of my life, and the results ranged from pathetic to blah in the best cases.i was developing a complex because even a  twelve year old was running these stunning dyeing sessions. how could i be so inoperative? i had experience dyeing with both natural and synthetic dyes i wasn't a new comer.i had information, on indigo  mostly scattered information granted, and recipes.

in a world of sharing it looks good to share, even when you share incomplete knowledge and  deliberately withhold the stellar points. ha!!so good for sharing and sharers.ha!!

then last year i took the plunge bought a real honest to goodness ph meter and a thermometer, no more guess workas i was able to measure for consistency. but what really brought it all together was michelle wipplinger's color coding vats.
there it was, the philosopher's stone:nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo! the knowledge of the ancients!! at last i could follow the specs and get dyeing with good results.

 anyway the other day while waiting for the vat to reduce i was surfing a bit and came across the  plant named lonchocarpus cyanescens as a source of indigotin. it grows in the african tropics  and it is known as yoruba indigo. here opens another route to be explored. right Catherine? (-_o)
enjoy this short film and notice the very dark blue obtained.

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full circle

Today is going to be fiendishly hot so i don't know how much i'll be able to dye.
More interesting things about ai i've found when doing some cross reading. Pardon my being so emphatic, but there are some people who have reading comprehension problems and this is meant for helping them. Found an excellent article here on indigo in Mali. As the material i'm using comes from there i could extrapolate one ot two things. Are the extrapolations correct? Will have to test them.

i also resurrected one of my first dye books an erudite treatise by Lenor Larsen called The Dyers Art , a socio-anthropological cross cultural study of dyeing and patterning methods. Not a how to, but incredibly valuable information is found in it.
And to close the circle the photo is a beautiful rough cotton textile from Mali.i
have my doubts whether it was dyed with natural indigo. But beauty is beauty nonetheless.

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aizome show and tell

Some of the work. As the vats are quite healthy i'm getting hold of everything i find and blueing it over :). i'm especially happy with the rust and indigo sibori cottons. More of those to come.
And the wool yarn is not bad either.

i don't care if monday's blue,
tuesday's grey and wednesday too..
i'm in love...



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can you see the clouds in my vat?

This goes on. With its ups and downs. Right now we're in the downs.
For the ups go here.
Thanks to PingMag Make!


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tools to make it easier

The flower here was generated with
http://www.zefrank.com/flowers/
Lots of fun, useful for making stencils, stamps or pattern tiles . There's also a link to make a garden for those who are not in possession of a green thumb.

Here's a screenshot of the flower generator.
This page has multiple java applet texture generators based on math algorithms. Useful for pattern ideas.

And last but not least these two are for you indigo lovers out there, courtesy of JaJa Pankova
from Czech Republic. The name will ring a bell if you frequent the dyerslist or Paula Burch's
dye forum .
Both are old indigo dyeing businesses still operating. They have on line shops and also do custom dyeing. Dye anyone? :)
http://www.modrotisk-danzinger.cz/5/vase-moznosti-.html
http://www.arimo-modrotisk.cz/konfekce_modrotisk.htm#metraz

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living vicariously

Impossible to work in bedlam. Net surfing as therapy.
Here are some goodies for you indigo lovers out there.
This African site where the picture was taken from talks about a Mali master indigo dyer.Scroll down and you'll find a gallery link with great textiles.
More. Magic of Light Mystery of Shadows blog posted an interesting post on carved wooden blocks for itajime. It also includes a video showing the cloth being unfolded.

Enjoy

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kanoko shibori -untie magic

If you've had thoughts of how horrid it would be to untie all those small tied dots the promised tutorial is here. The system works like a charm.

• hold the fabric with both hands
• put your index finger under a tied bundle give it an upward push
• tug the fabric with both hands and the tie will pop undone. Voila!
• move to the next tie keeping hold of the fabric and repeat the operation
  

It really pays off to do the tying with a continuous thread.
BTW the fabric was dyed with my one and only successful indigo vat.
It isn't dark dark blue, but it's a pretty good blue. Getting there!


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reversed buttonhole bar

TAST week 40 finds me uploading week 39. There's an excuse for this and it is that i'm obsessed with the indigo vat trying to exhaust it before the cold weather sets in and so get on with life.

i thought blahh! buttonhole again, but on the contrary it was quite fun to sample.
i don't know whether i "discovered" it or it's common knowledge, but you can get paisleys with this stitch. Got carried away and did some,very plain mind you, beading. Avoided paisley o. d. ,keeping that for a whole project.
i used size 10 white cotton crochet thread, rayon floss and DMC variegated embroidery cotton on beige linen. This is the last of it and i'm contemplating using Aida for a change. Not sure yet.

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buttonhole band

This week finds me uploading last week's TAST and without the benefit of Elisabeth of Quieter Moments who fuels my imagination.As a result this sample is very plain, almost verging on the boring.
Presently i'm getting my kicks from indigo dyeing which is going so well it has me walking around with a silly grin. Husband is another chapter in the story, he's ready to file for divorce because of the smell which is no big deal, just the characteristic indigo vat smell.

i used DMc embroidery ,spun silk for texture and silk doupioni dyed by myself.
For the ladders i used perle cotton recycled from a shibori dyeing session. Sometimes i keep the yarns i use for arashi shibori as i like the results and it is also instant gratification for being frugal.

i think there are possibilities with the diamond shapes but need to be worked better.
And there's also a lot of play with curved ladders. i have to get back to this stitch during a winter night.

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