"I" is for Indigo Dyeing

"I" is for Indigo Dyeing, because that's what I did over the past week instead of working on my MQG Challenge Quilt!

I've written a number of blog entries over the last several days in which I've addressed the dyeing process and some of its challenges.  I will continue with the more detailed commentary in future posts, but for today, I'm just going to do some show-and-tell of the shibori pieces I dyed last Wednesday.  Here they are:

Itajime (clamp resist):

Nui shibori (stitched shibori):

Tesuji (a particular kind of pole-wrapping technique):

Which is your favorite?  Mine is the last of the itajime pieces, which to me looks like a set of ethereal, slightly abstract windows.

Linking to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced and the Needle and Thread Network; more indigo shibori news coming soon!

Flower power

Here's why you're supposed to skim the so-called flower off the top of the indigo dye vat before you start dyeing:

If the undissolved bits of floating indigo get onto your fabric, they act as a resist.  The effect is actually quite beautiful in its way, but I wanted solid blues!

The flower might not be solely to blame, because some of the mottling probably resulted from the fabric being scrunched up in the dye bath, which also causes variations in exposure to the dye.  In addition, I ended up with some darker blotches on my supposed solids, as in the spots in the photo in the lower left-hand corner.  I'm guessing that these are places where the dye was pooled when I aerated the fabric.  I didn't wring out the fabric very well or lay it flat, and I think the blotches are areas that got more exposure to reduced indigo.  Dyeing solid fabrics is much harder than I thought it would be--it's far less forgiving than the various shibori techniques.

Next time, I'm going to start with a piece of fabric floating at the top of the bath, in order to try and remove the flower while also deliberately getting the mottled effect.  The adventure continues!   

The second batch

Yesterday we had one last day of warmth and sun before the wet, cool weather returned, so I did one more round of indigo dyeing.  It already started sprinkling in the late afternoon, so I constructed a makeshift lean-to along the fence in order to keep my fabrics dry as they aerated.  Here's the happy scene from this morning:

More indigo commentary soon!

Troubleshooting

I was eager to try and achieve a gradation of solids in Wednesday's indigo vat, but the results weren't quite what I intended.  In indigo dyeing, different shades are produced by multiple dips of the fabric in the dye bath.  After each dip, the fabric is aerated so that the indigo can oxygenate and, in the process of doing so, bind to the fabric.  I decided to dye four fat quarters in a sequence of 2, 4, 6, and 8 dips--i.e., I stopped dyeing the first piece after two dips, the second after four, and so on.

I had high hopes after I pulled the second piece and hung it up to dry next to the first:

As the second piece dried, however, it became lighter and lighter.  In the end, it was practically the same shade as the first piece, even though it went through two extra dipping cycles.  I spent much of the next four rounds of dipping wondering whether what I was doing would make any difference at all.  What in the world had gone wrong?

Four possibilities occurred to me:

1)  My dye vat was over-reduced at the outset.  Indeed, in my lab notebook notes on my dye bath, I wondered at the outset if the vat was too yellow.  I read online, in an article by Michele Wipplinger, that dark indigo cannot be attained in an over-reduced vat.

2)  I needed to add more stock solution after the first couple of rounds of dipping.  In the instructions from last fall's workshop, Akemi Nakano Cohn suggests adding a little more dye stock after the first two or three dips.  I thought the vat still looked plenty strong and had plenty of indigo left, but maybe I was wrong?

3)  Maybe the vat needed sharpening with thiox by the mid-afternoon?  Again, I thought the bath looked good, but maybe it was oxidated.

4)  Should I have kept the vat warm?  The day was so sunny that I didn't bother with a heat source, but perhaps I needed to be more rigorous about maintaining a high temperature.

I think the first possibility was the most likely.  Why?  Note the following photo, which shows the full sequence of four fabrics:

After six dips (third from the left), the fabric was just marginally darker, but the 8-dip piece came out a deep, rich blue.  Explanations 2-4 don't explain that result, so I'm guessing that as the afternoon proceeded, more oxygen got into the dye bath, to the point that the darker shade became possible. 

I'm just a complete tyro, however, so if you're a real indigo dyer, I'd love to have your thoughts and comments.

The dyeing begins! First indigo vat

I thought I'd need another week to get ready, but when I saw the forecast for a quick stretch of warm weather, I ramped up my schedule.  On Tuesday, I ran out and bought a stainless steel pot (capacity just shy of 16 quarts) along with other last-minute supplies, and on Wednesday, I made my first dye bath:

Note the yellow-green color of the dye bath beneath the blue at the top: reduced indigo.

Indigo requires an alkaline solution, as well as a reducing agent, in order to dissolve, and it needs to be in a chemically reduced state in order to bind to fibers.  When reduced, it appears yellow-green, and it turns blue when exposed to air.  There are a number of different ways to prepare an indigo vat, including various chemical methods, as well as techniques that use natural substances, such as fruit, as reducing agents.  The method I learned last fall uses lye for alkalinity, and thiourea dioxide (thiox) as a reducing agent.  It's a two-part process that requires making a concentrated stock solution, and then adding the stock solution to a larger bath.

Here's my stock solution, prior to pouring it into the vat:

Note the yellow-green color: evidence of indigo in a reduced state.

Despite my best efforts to follow the instructions and notes from October's workshop on how to mix the vat, I made all manner of mistakes.  I don't think my indigo was thoroughly wetted when I worked on making it into a paste.  Then I had trouble getting the thiourea dioxide to dissolve, so I poured it into the lye solution before pouring the lye + thiox into the indigo paste, rather than pouring the lye solution into the indigo, followed by the thiox solution.  I forgot to add Synthrapol to the dye vat before pouring the stock solution in, and then I also managed to drop the jar of stock solution into the dye vat (so much for avoiding splashes and doing everything gently in order to avoid oxidation).  I also didn't bother skimming off the "flower" (a.k.a. blue scum) floating on the surface of the dye bath, which is not a step I will skip in the future.

Even so, the dye vat worked reasonably well, although I did have some problems.  I tried dyeing solid fabrics, along with several itajime (clamp resist) samples, a fat quarter of nui shibori (stitched shibori), and one pleated and pole-wrapped piece.  I will start showing pictures of fabric in my next posting.

For now, here's part of the clean-up at the end of the day:

MQG Michael Miller Challenge!

D is for...?

Don't peek!  I'm working on my quilt for the MQG Michael Miller Challenge, but I want to surprise my quilt guild, so the overall design is top secret (which, of course, is why I'm blabbing about the quilt all over the web).  I've actually made a lot of progress and pieced fifteen out of the fifty-four letters that I need, but one letter is all that you get for the moment.

I also made three more kimono silk pouches and listed them in my Etsy shop:

  
Finally, I tried out the rubber stamps that my friend V. carved for me as a birthday gift.  I'm ashamed to say how long I took to get around to trying them out, but the results are lovely, especially on black silk:

I have to experiment with heat-setting the pigments, but if they prove reasonably color-fast, it would be nice to make some silk scarves.

Finally, the forecast calls for warm weather today, so I've accelerated my schedule, and I'm hoping to try setting up an indigo dye bath this afternoon (although I also have to do my taxes, which are due today).  Wish me luck (on both counts)! 

Linking up to WIP Wednesday on Freshly Pieced, and the Needle and Thread Network.  Cheers!

Oh, the procrastination!

When I showed off my shibori quilts at Monday's VMQG meeting, I proudly announced that I had worked on exactly zero of my UFOs for the guild's UFO challenge.  That's right: nada, none, zilch, zero!  I'm also not likely to make any progress next month either, because the guild handed out fabrics for the MQG Michael Miller Pinwheel Petals challenge.  Participants received fat eighths of these fun and lively fabrics:

(Yes, I already prewashed my fabrics, even though I keep hearing that it's unnecessary.  But I'm of a certain generation!)

How can I relegate myself to UFOs when new projects are calling?  The challenge allows the addition of solids, as well as any other Michael Miller prints.  With that in mind, I ran over to Spool of Thread and bought the following:

Yes, I prewashed these as well.  Can't break that habit!

I already have a definite plan in mind, and with any luck, I will report some progress for next week's WIP Wednesday.

In addition, I've also been avoiding UFOs by making kimono silk pouches for my Etsy shop.  I had a special order for five small pouches with extra length, and I made two medium-sized pouches for my regular listings:

I want to make three additional pouches this weekend, before kicking work on the challenge quilt into high gear.

Thanks goodness it's spring.  Happy sewing, everyone!