Indigo Play

I have been wanting to do some indigo dying for a long time. It is very popular right now but in the 70's I did a little natural dying as part of a textile design course at university. Indigo was the big deal then and there was this mystique around preparing the vat and whole dying process. Simon Fraser University offered a seniors' continuing ed. course this spring on the history of indigo and a dying workshop to accompany it. I was in!! The history was fascinating and the workshop gave me an opportunity to try various shibori techniques, get the inside scoop on creating the dye bath and all the details on the dying process. I was able to experiment with some soy wax batik too. Jean Kares is a fantastic instructor, knowledgeable and experienced. 
With each dip into the dye bath the blue color darkens. I only had time to dip my pieces twice as I wanted to try several techniques and fabrics. Here are some results: 

This was a clamping technique, very easy and effective.

Above are 3 different shibori circles, two straight line techniques, a few sashiko embellishment stitches and one tiny creative repair technique! Lesson learned to be careful with the stitch ripper when removing shibori stitches.

Pole dying on a gorgeous piece of fine linen I got in Italy! This is such an easy technique. Here it is drying on my deck before I washed out the excess indigo. The end result was about 2 shades lighter. One side is lighter than the other.  In this photo it is a hanging but right now I am using it as a table runner.