Session 4. Indigo & Shibori

This month’s tasks:

1. Have a go at working with indigo

   If you have fresh japanese indigo or woad to hand you can work with the fresh leaf method.

   Rebecca Desnos has a blog post on Fresh indigo leaf dyeing with Japanese indigo. Thai method also works with woad leaves in their first summer. 

   
   Make a small 2-3 litre vat with powdered indigo you can purchase. This is ideal if you want to experiment with resist techniques to create some patterns. Working with indigo extract resources.

   
   Have a go at making some patterns and prints. Video demonstration with resist techniques: sashiko, shibori, and arashi. 

2. Have a look through the Botanical Ink & Paint Making Resources. Start to gather materials you will need for making inks and paints.
   

3. Further resources to explore if you want to work more deeply with indigo

   • Extracting indigo pigment from leaves. Here is the method explained by Terenesha from Wild Colours You can use fresh Japanese indigo, fresh woad, or dried or fresh indigofera tinctoria. 

   • Dried indigofera tinctoria is commonly available to purchase as it is sold as ‘Black henna’ for hair dyeing. You can extract the indigo from the dried leaf. 

Our next session: Session 5 - Botanical Ink & Paint Making Q&A & Sharing work so far - July 11th 4-6pm BST

• Have a look through the Botanical Ink & Paint Making Resources beforehand.

• Please bring any work you have made so far, sampling, and experiments to share with the group.

Best wishes,

Flora