Indigo Dyeing (natural dyeing in general)

[bluesville]

Hmm... Correct me if I'm wrong because the only knowledge i have about dyeing was from reading the home-made jeans thread, but i think dipping the fabrics in like 2 - 4 times isn't going to cut it.

Because if you were to check out the last few pages of the home-made jeans thread, this dude planning to make a pair of jeans from scratch actually mentioned rope dyeing his cotton yarn in an indigo vet 20-30 times... :confused:

I think the blue dots are actually from the indigo dye that hasn't fully dissolved and are just floating around the barrel. Maybe u would wanna try stirring it more thoroughly.?

Bunga telang or the Clitoria ternatea. Peranakans frequently uses this flower as a form of food colouring for our desserts. It creates a nice indigo-ish shade of blue too..! just thought you might find it interesting.

yep, i tried 10 dips on a loomed linen and got a deep blue (not as dark as navy blue). I'll post the pics later, because it's in the delicate hands of my tailor.

Thanks for the tips on stirring, i'll make sure if its dissolved fully next time.

I can find some "pussy pea" in my garden

rather SFW pussy

I've tried dyeing with them but couldn't acquire any color. I just boiled it and used alum mordant. Maybe it needs different technique to extract the color from the flower? I'm not familiar with cooking

[bluesville]

If it's any help, unripe Mangosteens may have a higher tannin content.

What part of Terminalia Catappa are you using? The fruit or also the bark? Always with an iron mordant?

Have you tried Terminalia Chebula as a dye? It's supposed to be particularly tannin rich.

I like the comparison with Logwood - I guess various members of the Terminalia family were the Logwood of Iran-Africa and right across India-China-Malaysia-Vietnam.

PS. I thought Asam Gelugur was different to Asam Jawa (Tamarind)?

.

I use the leaves and barks of Terminalia catappa. with Alum mordant, i get yellow to khaki shade on different fabrics.

This chino is actually dyed in mostly Terminalia catappa mixed with some random barks with alum mordant

About Asama Gelugur, my mistake, it is different to Asam Jawa. I'll have to stroll around the traditional market to find some Gelugur. Definitely will try

Well, I cant find any mangosteens tree nearby. I acquire the mangosteens from nearby supermarket. They just disposed some bad or unsold fruits. I met the manager and talked him to ditch some disposed mangosteens in my house, for free:D

mangosteen soup, smells yummy

tees dipped in mangosteen bath after iron mordant

looks purpley when wet and goes gray when dried

left tee is darker because i give more iron mordant

So far, here's the result of latest experiment on Tees and shirt, from left to right:

4x Indigo + 1x mixed woods L/S shirt

2x Indigo

1x Terminalia catappa

1x Mangosteen

[poly800rock]

awesome!!!

[ringring]

I agree. Awesome!

Love the chinos (lovely khaki with the alum - I guess you'd get greys & blacks using iron) and the Catappa & Mangosteen tees.

[jlaz93]

Premium denim outlet sells textiles that are prepared for dying, their prices are very reasonable and their staff is helpful. This might be helpful to anyone looking for textiles, also they will send out swatch books if you ask for one.

http://www.premiumdenimoutlet.com/PFD.html

[ItsJustNC]

Nice to see the 'pussy pea' making an appearance

.

Glad i could help with your whiskers fade. Haha.!

yep, i tried 10 dips on a loomed linen and got a deep blue (not as dark as navy blue). I'll post the pics later, because it's in the delicate hands of my tailor.

Thanks for the tips on stirring, i'll make sure if its dissolved fully next time.

I can find some "pussy pea" in my garden

rather SFW pussy

I've tried dyeing with them but couldn't acquire any color. I just boiled it and used alum mordant. Maybe it needs different technique to extract the color from the flower? I'm not familiar with cooking

Well, i'm pretty sure the pussy peas are dries under the sun for a few days, then boiled to extract the colour. But... It takes about 15 of them to make roughly 4 servings of rice. So for a barrel of water, you're gonna need a whole lot more pussies.

[cheapmuthafukr]

good stuff... makes me wish i still had one of the natural indigo CMF tees from a few years back.

[blackmaged]

Anyone know, on average, the price difference between natural and synthetic indigo (per ounce)?

[bluesville]

Anyone know, on average, the price difference between natural and synthetic indigo (per ounce)?

im not really sure about the price, perhaps cheaper than natural one?

sorry for lack of updates, we've been busy experimenting and producing our first product.

latest experiment, we tried overdyeing indigo tees with Terminalia belerica, and obtained green shade. quite interesting.

the mottling waas from formerly uneven indigo dyeing.

We also try hand written batik to put our logo on the tees. It's basically writing or drawing on fabrics with wax to block the color in dyeing process

after indigo bath

We're not sure if the size of the tees will remain the same when the wax is removed. One method to remove the wax is soaking in hot water to melt it, maybe there woulb be some shrinkage

[izyazuya]

wow Osi ada disini..baru baca masbro threadnya...suksez yaa :D

I'll wait for the shirt release dude

[bluesville]

We just got a new sample of indigo from another source and took some pics of it in paste form.

new stuffs came from Central Java

Just like our previous post, we try to experiment with one of Indonesia's traditional art form "batik tulis". The main ingredient for writing batik in a fabric is some sort of beeswax, which is in solid form originally, then we must warm them with a bit of fire and the wax turns into liquid which then can be use in a fabric.

warming the wax

writing process in a cotton tee, the wax will block the dye substance in that particular area, so the writings will remain white after dyeing

some experimented tee with 20 indigo deep and a wood bath to finalize it. Now it has a bit of greencaste on it

This one is a (selvage?) linen dyed in a reddish tint tree bark and the outcome is a beautiful soft pinkish color

another experiment includes 10-15 indigo dip with 2 times wood bath at the end, the result is a blueish green shade which I rarely seen used in a fabric. I personally really like this result

[dinifilan]

Awesomeeeee threads si!! Looking forward to ur newest documentation and updates..

Btw, batik tulis combined with indigo dyed = DOPE *cheers!

[shinobi2000]

where do i get on the waiting list!?

[M.O.A]

WOW

I love this thread

I've been contemplating dying a few things this summer. I think this just put me over the edge...

[oomslokop]

is this you too bluesville?

[OmpaOmpo]

Damn, I love that shade of pink!

[beatle]

maybe someone can point me in the right direction..want to hand dye some things - need indigo powder / dye..thanks***

[drz]

^ you can try Seiwa Konya-i from Japan Blue. The price is a bit steep but it is a very good 10g of natural indigo powder.

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/yanagiya/rsf18458/

the instructions is in Japanese, but basically you should add the powder into a bowl of water and add the reducing agents (in this case a hydro sulfide) and voila, the vat is ready to use.

I never tried this, but this seems to be a good indigo kit as well http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/6991799-AA.shtml

[beatle]

awesome, thanks so much, appreciated

[bluesville]

we've been busy experimenting with new sources of dye and techniques. We also planning to try some hand weaving.

One of our new source of dyes is Mengkudu or Morinda Citrifolia. We use the bark of the roots. This plant usually produce pink to brick red shade.

we choose the small barks, the bigger ones have less pigment

the barks is chopped to little pieces and then crushed

And after a few a hours simmering, heres the morinda juice, smells good

We soak some yarn in the dye pot, and different shade is acquired from different soak time. The yarn was mordanted with Alum before soaking.

Here they are

left to right: Indigo-persimmon-Morinda

[bluesville]

Yarn dyeing in indigo is not as easy as we thought. The result is streaky and uneven, where the inside of the roll have lighter shade. We still have to improve our technique.

The yarn is oxidizing

All of the yarn will be hand woven in this old machine. The fabrics in the pic is not ours btw

[ItsJustNC]

Whoa..! Everything looks sweet..! Do a morinda weft and indigo waft denim..! =P Gotta spreadd..! =///

[bluesville]

ItsJustNC dont spoil the surprise

[ItsJustNC]

Holy Hell..! I'd Kill To Get A Pair Of Jeans Made Out Of Those..! With A Persimmon Seldvage.?!

[ItsJustNC]

IMAGINE... A cochineal selvage..

[darly900]

I wasn't sure where to put this, but anyway.

A new book came out called "Indigo- Egyptian Mummies To Blue Jeans". I've got a few books on indigo and this is certainly the best reference/history book and seems to have loads of interesting stuff about indigo through the ages. It isn't a 'how to', for that I'd recommend "Indigo- From Seed To Dye" but it's a great book. (FWIW I'm nothing to do with it, though I would recommend it to anyone interested in indigo)

Below is just a small except which relates to this interesting discussion

http://www.superfuture.com/supertalk/showpost.php?p=1665703&postcount=46