Aaaah, indigo. Such a familiar name and yet, what is it exactly? We all know that favorite dark wash pair of jeans was dyed with indigo… the tag said so! We also know that sometimes it can rub off on our skin during the first few wears and we’re supposed to wash it separately at first. Oh, and indigo is a plant. That’s about as far as common knowledge goes.
We could share a lot with you about indigo and all it’s glory. It’s obviously one of our favorite dyes here at DABU and for good reason. It’s one of the very few cold vat dyes which can be used for the process of dabu printing. Rather than share all the ways indigo can be used however, we thought we’d share how WE use it. After all, there’s a big difference between the indigo used on your jeans and the indigo we use here in the studio.
Photo credit: Tarai Blue, one of our sources for indigo bricks
We care a lot about the nature of the dyes we use. We stand by herbal and mineral dyes being the best for our environment and our bodies. So when it came to indigo, we knew we had to start at the source. And yep, it’s a plant!
Thankfully, for the sake of time, we didn’t have to reduce the leaves to powder. That’s a whole process in itself! And, though we are still searching for the purest source, we started our first vat with a brick of indigo powder from Tarai Blue here in India.
With indigo powder in hand, we created what we have lovingly labeled: the banana vat. Don't worry, it'll make sense later.
Something to know before we get started: indigo powder is insoluble, meaning when added to water it retains its form and does not dissolve. So how is it made usable? Great question!
First, we need something that will make the insoluble indigo powder soluble in water. To do this we need, what is called in the dying world, a reducing agent. This simply means something that interacts with the indigo in a way that lets it relax and become soluble (or to get technical: it lowers the oxidation level). A reducing agent can be a chemical, plant, or almost any form of fructose… but some are better than others. For our indigo vat, we used, you guessed it, bananas! While the bananas were a great starting point, our vat needed a little extra encouragement in the form of spent madder (a fancy way to say already-used madder root—a great dye for reds).
However, as you science experts know, a reducing agent, or in our case bananas and spent madder, is not quite enough to bring about the magical transformation of insoluble indigo to leuco-indigo (or in layman’s terms, soluble indigo). The indigo powder and the bananas need a good environment to do their work. In dyers terms, a base is needed. This base must be alkaline in nature and in most cases is calx (calcium hydroxide). Ancient methods used cow urine and although that’s on our bucket list, it didn’t quite make it in to this first vat. So calx it was.
So, let's begin. Ingredients gathered:
- 2.5 oz of natural indigo powder
- 4.5 lbs of bananas (and some spent madder)
- 2.5 oz of calx
Analise, our in house dyeing expert and designer, walked me through her experience starting the vat earlier this year. She peeled and mashed 4.5 lbs of bananas, covered them with water and boiled them for 30 minutes. She strained the juice from the boiled bananas into a 5 gallon vat of warmed water and added in the indigo powder and calx. A gentle stir is the name of the game. Too much oxygen in the water is bad news. Wait a few minutes. Gentle stir. Repeat.
Heat switched off, vat covered, she waited with bated breath for the next morning. If the vat was successful there would be an indigo flower at the top of the vat in the morning.
First try is the charm? I think not.
Back to the gentlemen selling bucketloads of bananas. I’m pretty sure he could not have been happier to see Analise come again. Who else is buying 4.5 pounds of bananas at a time? Business was booming!
13.5 pounds of bananas later, it seems that the third try really is the charm! Look at that beautiful indigo bloom.
Thanks to Analise, we now have a happy indigo vat at our studio! When in use, she is sure to keep it covered and feeds the vat what it needs to maintain an alkaline base and deep indigo color dye (think our three ingredients: indigo powder, reducing agent and base).
Side Note: Our artisan partner, Mr. Laxmilal, has a giant indigo vat to accommodate the meters and meters of fabric he dyes on a regular basis. As you can see in the photo, this vat is deep enough to submerge large amounts of fabric at a time (9ft to be exact). As I noted earlier, the great thing about indigo is that it is a cold vat. Unlike most other dyes, it requires zero heat during the dying process. This is great for dabu as any heated vat would disintegrate the delicate mud print. Once dry, the mud printed fabric is carefully dipped in the cold indigo vat and spread to dry, all without disturbing the beautiful design hidden away beneath the mud.
Now, how were your jeans dyed? I’m guessing it wasn’t with bananas and spent madder! Stay tuned for an update on our journey to perfect the ancient method. First time collecting cow urine from our neighbors. Won’t be the last.
Hope you enjoyed watching our indigo vat flower. We sure did.
Bye for now!
Sarah
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