The rainy season officially ended last week, and with that, the summer heat and humidity arrived here in full force. With daily temperatures in the mid-30s C, my indigo plants were starting to look quite sad, even with the best of care. So-- I decided it was time to try dyeing with them using the fresh leaves method.
Here's what I did, step-by-step:
(my mom, kindly demonstrating)
First, I harvested the leaves, chopping the plant at about 15-20cm from the base. According to my reference, it is best to separate the leaves from the stem and use the leaves only as the inclusion of the stem causes the color to be duller.
Next, working in manageable batches, toss the leaves in a blender with water (about 50 grams of leaves/ 1 liter of water) and turn on for about a minute. Strain and repeat with the remainder. I used twice the weight of the dye material (yarn) in leaves (which was all I had to gather anyway).
Soak the yarn in the dyebath. I let it soak for a few minutes, lifted it out to oxidize slightly, then re-soaked until the color looked dark enough. The first photo is from the initial soak, the second from the subsequent soak. You can see how the yarn has absorbed the color.
Air out well. This is straight out of the dyebath. It's a shame this striking teal can't be preserved...
Add a little bit of oxydol (Japanese term for approx. 3% hydrogen peroxide solution) to a bowl of water and soak the yarn for about 10 minutes. I used about 10 ml oxydol to 2 liters of water. This aids the oxidizing process and prevents the color from running. Rinse in water until the water is clear or mostly so. As you rinse, you'll see the green color leave the yarn and the blue remain.
Let dry out of direct sunlight. To see if there was any color left after the first yarn, I dropped a second one in the dye. The result is the pale blue. I think they are both beautiful in their own right.
For those who are interested, I used the following two Japanese natural dyeing books for reference:
草木染 (Colours from Plant Dyes) by Kazuki Yamazaki ISBN:4635580245
ウールの植物染色 by Yuko Teramura ISBN:4579201604
