I am planning to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico at the end of January, beginning of February 2022, and need your help! Once again, I am seeking donations to help fund the trip. The purpose of this trip is to help local artisans hit hard by the pandemic. I will be teaching several 2-day workshops during my time there. The workshops will be free for the artisans.
Through this project I intend to reach 40 to 50 artisans, in turn, they will be able to reach out to others in their villages and teach them. These will be indigo workshops utilizing local ingredients. Participants will learn to make an indigo vat that is easy to maintain and long-lasting. And, importantly, I will be asking the participants to bring materials they traditionally work with. It is important that the participants become comfortable using an indigo vat with the materials they work with whether it be wool, cotton, or silk!
Each $25.00 donation will fund the cost of 1 indigo vat! Each $50.00 donation will fund a day’s lunch for the participants. Some of the money will go to food, lodging, and ground transportation while I am in Oaxaca. A generous donor has already covered my airfare!!
Many of you already know about my work over the past 20 years traveling and teaching free workshops to people in need. I am so grateful that I can continue to do this. But it can only happen with your kind generosity!!
There are lots of lovely rewards available!! Tax-deductible donations can be made through my fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas by using the following link:
I am completely over the moon!! My indigo garment has been accepted for an exhibition in Tokushima, Japan!
The piece is titled Blueness/Oneness. The inspiration came from many places.
First, seeing a beautiful piece by my friend Pavrita Shyam (who I met at IndigoSutra in Calcutta, India) began several conversations about Kalamkari techniques.
This led to my spending several months doing many experiments with various natural binders, indigo stock solutions and curing times on cotton cloth.
Culminating in Blueness/Oneness. A cloth with many personal connections.
In this garment I bring together the style of the Mexican Huipile – influenced by my many trips to Oaxaca to teach Indigo dyeing and other workshops at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.
Often the Huipile is made from one piece of handwoven cloth – so too is the Indian Sari one piece of handwoven cloth!
Next – the natural binder of High Fat Milk and Myrobalan used by the Kalamkari artists of India allows me to paint on the muslin (cotton cloth) woven in India.
Indigo powder from an amazing NGO in Bangladesh – Living Blue – is used to make the stock solution.
Silk threads from China are dyed with Japanese Indigo from my garden. They are used for Sashiko stitching (a Japanese technique) to embellish the garment.
And finally my adaptation of my friend Michele Wipplinger’s Indigo stock solution formula!
Putting all this together with my own design sense and we have Blueness/Oneness! A coming together – a celebration – of many cultures!
The exhibition will take place Jan 18 – 26, 2020 in Tokushima, Japan.
Bunka no Mori Event Hall, 21st Century Building, Bunkanomori Park
Mukoterayama-1, Hachimancho, Tokushima City
Tokushima Prefecture, Tokushima, Japan 770-8070
Also I will be teaching this technique and more at Aranya Natural in Munnar, Kerala, Southern India in Feb 2020 at their 25th Anniversary Celebration.
For more information click HERE
Here is a link to a very interesting video about Fresh Leaf Indigo Dyeing with Japanese Indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) using salt!
And here’s how I do it!
Step by step- The Salt Method
The Steps!
1) Scour Silk Scarves
2) Persicaria tinctoria ready for harvest
3) Harvested indigo being kept in a bucket with water
4) Fill a 5 qt stainless steel bowl with leaves
5) Kosher Salt Fine Flake
6) Add 3 tablespoons salt to your leaves
7) Knead the leaves have until they begin to shrink and produce liquid
8) Add the scarves and begin to knead the leaves and scarves together
9) Add more leaves if needed to cover scarves, Check scarves to be sure there are no white spots.
10) The longer you knead the darker the blue
11) Solid Blue – Hanging to dry after rinsing, washing and rinsing again
12) Borders dyed – Hanging to dry after rinsing, washing and rinsing again
My love affair with Indigo began many years ago. It was when working with silk dyes that I needed to find an alternative dye source as I began to have a bad reaction to the chemical dyes.
At about the same time, I moved to New Mexico where I had the opportunity to be exposed to natural dyes being used to dye yarns for the beautiful woolen rugs being produced there.
As I studied the plants of New Mexico, and learning their uses both for color and medicine, I began forming a long-term goal of working with natural dyes.
For many years I was a dabbler – experimenting, studying and reading about these fascinating dyes.
Fast forward to August 2001 when I opened The Yarn Tree, a retail store selling yarn, fiber and dyes and studio in Brooklyn, NY. I suddenly had space where I could begin dyeing on a larger scale. I began dyeing yarns to sell in my shop and eventually teaching workshops in natural dyeing. I can still remember my excitement (and nervousness) at working with my first indigo vat – this amazing and magical color that I had studied for so long. My first vats were chemical vats – using natural indigo with a combination of lye and thioureadioxide. These chemical vats gave great color and were not difficult to make but gave off a wretched odor.
Once again fate intervened – I had been living in a tiny rent controlled studio apartment for many years when a large apartment with an outdoor space came available near my store. That spring I set up my first natural ferment indigo vat. I believe it was 15 or 20 gallons in size. This was when I first began to think about the possibility of growing my own indigo but it would be years before I could do so. By the next spring I had taken on a second studio space that was to be my dye studio. Here I set up a 55 gallon natural ferment indigo vat that I kept alive for 5 years.
Unfortunately in 2011 I closed the business and left NYC as I could not recover from the 2008 recession.
I moved to the South, first to Asheville, North Carolina and eventually to Greenville, South Carolina and continued to work with, teach and sell indigo and indigo dyed products.
There is a history of indigo growing in South Carolina. It was first grown on a plantation run by a young woman, Eliza Pinckney, in 1740. She grew Indigofera tinctoria and it took three years before she had a successful crop. Indigo then became an important cash crop for the South until the American Revolutionary War!
Knowing that the climate here successfully hosted indigo growing I decided to finally pursue my long held dream of growing and using my own indigo.
I purchased Japanese Indigo seeds (Polygonum tinctorium aka Persicaria tinctoria) from Rowland Ricketts and got ready to plant.
My first planting was very small – an almost heart shaped spot on my front lawn where once had been a large tree since removed. I had a successful crop and used the fresh indigo leaves to dye silk scarves.
For year two I decided to expand and purchased the materials to make four raised beds each 42inches X 42inches. I set these up on my front lawn. Again I had a very good crop. The first harvest was used to do fresh leaf indigo dyeing and the second was grown for the seeds.
My next goal is to expand my growing area and I am hoping to get my hands on some Indigofera tinctoria seeds. I want to grow Indigofera tinctoria and make my own indigo cakes!
I have had the opportunity to teach indigo dyeing (and natural dyeing) in many parts of the world including two workshops at IndigoSutra in Kolkata this past November.
For me it was a natural progression to go from experimenter to dyer to grower.
But why this fascination with indigo?
I like to say that Indigo is as old as time, we know it has been in use for several thousand years. It is grown all over the world – just different species – Indigofera tinctoria, Indigofera suffruticosa, Indigofera guatemalensis, Persicaria tinctoria to name a few.
Each culture has their own method of going from green plant to dyestuff whether it be fresh leaf, balls, cakes, paste or sukumo. Each culture has its own way of making an indigo vat with their very own special and sometimes secret ingredients. Yet we all produce the same color – Indigo Blue. Each culture has great respect for indigo and most honor the Indigo god with offerings, altars and sacrifices. And indigo has many names Anil or Nil – thought to be after the Nile River, Indigo coming from the word India and in Japan it is known as Ai or Aizome.
Indigo is surrounded with both myth and superstition. In some cultures only women are the dyers and others only the men. It is a color worn by both peasants and royalty.
And it has medicinal properties. Here are several – an indigo dyed cloth wrapped around your forehead will alleviate a headache, wearing indigo clothing can be calming, it is a natural bug repellent and it can be used to reduce fevers.
Indigo commands respect. By this I mean that one cannot be in a bad mood or rushing when working with indigo – you will not have good results. You must be patient. Having a natural indigo vat is like caring for a child or a pet – it cannot get too cold or hot and must be fed. Well-maintained indigo vats will survive for years and years. It is said that there are 100 year-old indigo vats in Japan.
For me indigo is more than just the color blue, it is a way of life.
Here is a video about Indigo Dyeing using the Fresh Leaves from my Garden!!
I love it when dreams come true! Growing my own indigo and then dyeing with it has been a long-held dream of mine. That dream finally came true right here in Greenville, SC.
My tiny patch of indigo growing on my front lawn has produced beautiful, healthy plants high in indicatin.
The seeds, Japanese Indigo – Polygonum tinctorium also called Persicaria tinctoria, came from Rowland Ricketts indigo fields in Indiana.
Jenny Balfour-Paul, author of Deeper than Indigo, kindly shared the dyeing method with me.
For more information and to register : Rae Geoffrey 828 210 9837
Indigo is as old as time, mysterious and beautiful. Indigo is surrounded by myth and superstition, Indigo dyed fabrics clad both royalty and the working class. Indigo traveled the Silk Road from China to Italy (and back to Japan) where it was grown, produced, worn and traded.
In this workshop participants will learn how to make a green, eco-friendly and sustainable indigo vat. Using no harsh chemicals and virtually no odor you can use this technique to dye in your kitchen.
Shibori is the Japanese term for creating a resist on cloth by folding, clamping, stitching, wrapping, pleating, knotting or tying. The resist areas will not take dye thus creating a pattern on the cloth. It is also known by the names, Bandy, Plangi and Tikrit and is practiced in Africa, China, Malaysia, Indonesia and India . It can be a simple as a tie-dyed T-shirt to very complex patterns taking hours or days to complete.
The Shibori workshop will cover four ancient resist techniques with a modern twist. After creating the resist patterns participants will dye their silk scarves in indigo.
With Christmas right around the corner this is the perfect workshop – a great how-to for making beautiful gifts!
Linda LaBelle is an Asheville based weaver and natural-dyer. Linda has taught weaving techniques and both indigo and natural dyeing in India, Rwanda, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Mexico and Brooklyn, NY.
Master weaver Erasto (Tito) Mendoza took my Weft Ikat workshop last March at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca.
He just sent me this stunning picture of a tapete (rug) he wove using the ikat yarns he dyed in the workshop.
The blue and white background are the weft ikat yarns Tito dyed and incorporated with traditional Zapotec motifs.
The fabric for this beautiful summer kimono was dyed by my friend Theresa using the all Natural Indigo method. Incorporating a variety of Shibori techniques she dipped the fabric in her indigo pot. When Theresa was done dyeing she removed the resists, rinsed the fabric and once it was dry sewed it into this lovely Yukata.
I can’t wait to see what she does next!
If you would like to try your hand at indigo dyeing you can purchase an Indigo Kit
Madderlane 