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…
How to consistently dye even, solid colors on plant fibers.