While for some dye pigments there are somewhat simple ways to extract and process the color to create natural dye pigments, such as simmering the bark or roots. Indigo Processing falls on the other extreme, requiring consistent attention and care. The indigo fermentation vat is a traditional extraction technique that uses the leaves of the Indigo plant, or other indigotin-containing plants such as woad or Japanese Indigo to create a steady blue dye. Without indigotin-containing plants, blue color is otherwise unavailable from nature. You’re probably more familiar with indigo than you might think—it’s still used to dye some blue jeans.
For the 2009 growing season we will be growing four varieties of indigo-containing plants – specifically indigo (Indigofera suffructosa and Indigofera tinctoria), woad (Isatis tinctoria), and Japanese indigo (Polygonum tinctoria). In addition to having our own local sustainable source of naturally derived indigo, we will be partnering to create storable, value-added dye products that can be sold from the farm-gate across the region as a natural alternative to synthetic indigo. In addition to our own farm plot, we will be working with a biodynamic farm in Southern Kentucky farms to collaborate on cultivating indigo-containing plants and determining which varieties are most conducive to our region, and on developing techniques for on-farm processing of indigo.
For more information on the wonder of indigo, check out this great site for more information, its one of the places we learned! http://indigodye.blogspot.com/
Ali dyeing wool in an indigo vat