It’s almost the start of summer here, and the days are getting longer. This journal would be more appropriately titled “Japanese Dye Plants Diary”, but the akane is the most unusual part I’m growing, and I already mistitled the first entry. Japanese Indigo has gotten popular, but we’re all growing it for a reason. Murasaki…
In December of 2025 I acquiring 6 packets of Japanese madder seedlings. This was done with the help of a friend living in Japan, and the seeds were imported legally through the USDA inspection process. The box arrived smashed, and open, but luckily the seeds hadn’t fallen out. As a note, you must use Japan…
This post is part III of a series of posts on learning about dyeing katazome with indigo. It’s the last post for now, until I can dye with indigo again in the spring and summer. It’s common with indigo katazome to brush soymilk on after laying down paste. This does two things: it strengthens the…
Last fall, I did some preliminary trials with different types of fabric pretreatments – soy, funori, and konjac. Konjac, a root vegetable, comes from the Okinawan tradition. Funori, a seaweed, is a very common pretreatment for fabric in katazome and its sister, sodum alginate, is often used for pretreatment and thickening in procion mx dye.…
Since the weather has gotten warmer and drier, I’ve had the opportunity to do further experiments on the best processes for double sided indigo. I based my experiments on traditional processes found in a book I really enjoy, 日本の手わざ 長板中形, and conversations with my friend Skye at https://www.instagram.com/indigoblueskye/. Understand that these are not my best…
My indigo crop is blooming early this year, so I decided to try some new techniques to salvage the harvest. I did a lot of trials of different types of stencil dyeing, and I have some still in the works, but I thought I’d share what worked so far. I’ve done a lot of surizome…
Recreating Momoyama Era Stencil Resist Dyeing Introduction Chayazome is a unique form of Momoyama Era (1568-1600) stencil resist technology where both sides of the fabric are resisted with rice paste and then dipped into an indigo vat. The result is a clear white pattern against a blue background, with a fabric that looks the same…
A startup guide to katazome, Japanese Paste Resist Dyeing,
This article is the first in a series of articles about katazome. The series begins begins with a historical overview of early katazome dyeing. The rest of the internet covers katazome in the later Edo and Meiji periods extremely thoroughly. Following this article, I will have a technical overview of the process, and then I…
How to consistently dye even, solid colors on plant fibers.