Indigo Dye Workshop

In the heart of Walthamstow allotments you will find the Indigo garden, cared for by Liza and Luisa

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Regular workshops are held throughout the summer months to share the magic of natural indigo dyeing.

Indigo dye is naturally derived from the Indigofera genus of plants through extraction of the Indican. There are various plant types with Indican that can be found in different regions based on climates. Between these variations are varying degrees of indigo pigment concentration.

To create indigo, indican needs to be extracted from the plant’s leaves. When exposed to air, the indoxyl converts to indigotin. This is the insoluable blue chemical which forms indigo dye.

The first technique we used was only suitable to dye protein fibres and was used to hand dye a silk cloth. Picking a selection of leaves, we sprinkled some salt and water over the top and then hand scrunched together with the cloth. Eventually the Indican started to extract from the leaves and absorb into the cloth. Once exposed to the air, it dyed the cloth (and our hands) indigo.

With the remnants of the leaves, we combined together to create an indigo vat. This method would allow for other material types to be dyed such as cellulose fibres.

To create a vat, three key ingredients are required: indigo (in this case the leaves), a component to elevate the pH (calcium hydroxide) and a reducing agent (to remove oxygen from the dye liquid to allow the pigment to bond to the fibre). In our example we created a fructose vat, using fructose powder as the reducing agent.

The vat was heated and left to reduced. Once reduced the liquid became yellow, with indigo foam (known as flowers) skimming the surface. We soaked our cotton strips into water and then dipped into the vats. Final results were a beautiful pale blue as much of the pigment had already been used in the initial silk dying.

Other popular methods of extraction is to ferment the leaves. This process would take several days and eventually would be dried out into cakes which can be powered and used to create various intensities and shades of blue.

It is also possible to imprint straight from the leaf to the fabric by hammering or rubbing against the fabric which can create striking leaf prints.

It was a fascinating day with so much to learn, I would recommend for everyone to give it a try!

Check out upcoming workshops from the following link: @Indigogarden | Linktree