Into the Indigo

This week was as good a time as ever to harvest the indigo, which I grew for the first time in my garden this year thanks to a 1:1 broom student of mine who gifted me the seedlings in exchange for a broom lesson in the spring. I grew them next to my herb garden, and they grew easily with very little coaxing from me, just two little seedlings gave me more than enough to work with for a first time experiment.

You want to harvest the indigo before it has gone to flower, and also as early in the morning as possible and as swiftly as possible to retain all the moisture in the plant that you can. I chose a morning after a rain; a set up my bowl right in the garden so I could work quickly.

Stripping the leaves into the bowl, I first experimented with a Japanese salt method wherein you massage the leaves with salt to coax out the dye and then submerge your fabric with the leaves and salt, scrubbing and massaging for at least 30 minutes. This was extremely satisfying, and yeilded a beautiful deep aqua right away. I wish I had found some silk instead of cotton, because I did read that animal fibers take better to this method; I will be better prepared next year.

I also tried an ice water method I read online attributed to John Marshall; placing the fresh leaves in an ice water bath, blend the leaves with the ice in a good blender until a thick potion is made and then submerge your fabrics in that for several hours, occasionally turning. This also worked but I found it to be less effective; it created more of a baby blue color, and it was very hard to get the plant flakes out of the fabric after. I ended up dipping multiple times but it wasn’t as nice as the salt way.

I am in love with indigo. I knew that I would be; I am so grateful for the plants and their wisdom. I made an offering to the bare bit of earth where they once lived, and I look forward to seeing them again next summer. This winter I will use these fabrics for quilt blocks and as the ground for an embroidery I have in mind.