Teresa Kobayashi has her own indigo dye studio in Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan. It is called Dye House Tereya.
Teresa loves indigo as much as I do, as much as we all do!
Teresa Kobayashi explains her process in the following photos:
In order to get blue from indigo, which is a plant, you need a high alkaline, oxygen free atmosphere. These photos show one way of doing that; natural fermentation.
This is the ash used to make the alkaline solution.
This shows the indigo pot and alkiline solutions #1 and #2.
I put the ash into buckets and stir everyday for a few days. I make 4-5 solutions that range from ph30 to ph13 and are numbered, with #1 being the highest.
After stirring up the ash and water it gets real foamy.
Alkaline solution #1, with the highest ph level. The ash has all settled to the bottom and the liquid is pretty clear.
Here are my buckets of alkaline solution.
The beautifully, clear ash water.
When the ash water is ready I start by filling the pot to about 1/3 full with the medium ph level of ash water and stir in the composted indigo leaves. I gradually add more ash water until the pot is full and the indigo is ready to use. I keep it maintained throughout its period of use (up to 6 months) by adding more of the higher or lower ph level ash water as needed to keep it at it's ideal level.
Even though I have this really nice 100 year old, traditional 'Ohtani Yaki' woodfired indigo pot, I have to cover it with an old electric blanket......
and then insulate it with foam. I have to do this because I need to maintain a warm atmosphere for the fermentation. Traditionallly these pots were buried part way and then a platform was built around them that came level to it's lip. Coal, was used between the earth and the top of the platform. I don't do it that way for several reasons.
I dressed my pot in a burlap bag and creatively wrapped hemp cord around it. This is purely to hide that ugly insulation sheet.
Since the bottom is so narrow, it is very unstable, so we rigged up a nice tri-pod and tied it securely.
This is the composted indigo leaves. I buy this compost from an indigo grower who harvests the leaves and then composts them, for people like me to buy. It is filled with wonderful indigo bacteria.
Now, in order for me to be able to make use of that bacteria, which makes the blue color, I need to create an oxygen free vat. Here we go. First I sprinkle a little lime on to the composted leaves.
I also sprinkle lime on the inside of my pot. This helps to get rid of any weird germs or other bacteria that could be harmful to the indigo. This was the first time I used this particular pot and I had bought it at an antique store. Although it is a traditional pot made for indigo the last owners could have been using it as a goldfish bowl. It is over 100 years old. Did I say that all ready? I like this pot. It's kind of small, as they go. I have another, almost twice as big, now in the new studio.
Then, I start stomping on it. I was standing in those boots before I took the picture. I don't know why I chose such a small container....I normally use one that is easier to move around in. Pretty silly now that I'm looking at it. HA!
So then I mix the composted leaves with a little alkali solution and put it in my heated pot. I keep adding more solution everyday. In this shot the pot isn't even all the way filled up and it has already started to ferment. The iridescent film on the surface is oxidized bacteria
I filled the pot up to the top and the indigo got quiet. That color is just the tanin from the leaves, and the foam from the ash water. After a day it will be iridescent again.
The pot is fermenting nicely and I have started to stir it daily. In the early stages the color of the bubbles that surface are a pretty turqoise blue. That color and that greyish foam means that it is still not ready for dyeing.
Here, there is a good 'indigo flower' (the name of that cluster of bubbles), but the surrounding area is kind of cloudy, with some greyish bits of foamy bubbles floating around. Not ready yet.
It is not ready to be used properly yet, but it is fermenting well, so I want to test the color with a small fabric swatch.
When I first take it out is is a green color (you can only see it on the one edge where my finger was, I was slow with the shot) until it oxidizes and then it turns blue.
Friday, October 16, 2009
TERESA KOBAYASHI- INDIGO DYE
Saturday, October 03, 2009
THE COLORS OF KUSAKI-ZOME
Kusaki-zome is Japanese for grass and tree dyes. 
I made a stencil and used rice paste as a resist to show the original fabric color. Some of the dye stuffs are pomegranite, lac, red cabbage, fustic, walnut, cochineal, peach leaves, logwood, and madder to name a few.
The samples show the different colors
that can be achieved using different mordants.
Kozo paper
Saturday, September 19, 2009
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR KUSAKI-ZOME
COLLECTING MATERIALS
The dyes can be obtained from leaves, bark, hulls, fruit, berries, nuts, grasses, flowers, lichen, insects and minerals.
Most plants will yield some color when boiled and processed for dye. The question is whether those colors obtained are worth the effort. In most cases the resulting color will be pale yellow, beige or pink and have little strength.
The dye substances can be used fresh or may be dried. It is best to gather them when they are in the best state for collection as a dye plant. To obtain the best color results they should be used immediately after they are gathered. Leaves should be gathered in early summer when they are young; flowers just after coming to bloom before the sun has a chance to fade them; the whole plant when the flower is in bloom; fruit when well ripened and bruised, roots when the plant has died down in the fall; bark should be collected in the spring.
To store for future use, the green parts and flowers should be dried out of direct sunlight. Dried plants should be stored in a dark place.
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING EXTRACTS OF LEAVES, BARK, HULLS, ROOTS, GRASSES, FLOWERS, AND FRUIT.
The following instructions are general directions for the boiling down of fresh or dried leaves, bark, hulls, roots, grasses, flowers and fruit.
1. The amount of water and dye material added to the pot are standard and may be increased or decreased according to the color desired.
2. The larger pieces of bark, roots, twigs, hulls and grasses should be chopped into small pieces. If the pieces are too difficult to chop, they may be soaked overnight or chopped in a blender or mashed after they have been softened by boiling.
3. The dyes are extracted using heat and a series of repeated boiling . The number of extractions depend on the dye substance.
4. To boil, the specified amount of water is put into an enamel, stainless steel or glass pot. A copper, aluminum, or chipped enamel pot will affect the color of the dye. Pots made of these metals will react with the dyes and mordants.
5. To speed up the boiling process the dye material may be added to hot water.
6. Boil the dyes uncovered for the required amount of time.
7. The dyes may be stirred with glass rods, dowels, wooden or stainless steel spoons
8. When the dye has been completely extracted and the depth of color has been achieved by combining dye liquors. Strain the dye through a finely woven nylon or polyester cloth bag or a piece of nylon fabric lining a plastic colander. This will filter out any fine particles that might remain to stain the fabric. Do not strain through a metal sieve unless it is made of stainless steel. Do not strain through a cotton or natural fiber bag as the bag will absorb and weaken the dye.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
RANRU AND BORO
Mottainai (もったいない, 勿体無い) is a Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized." It is originally a buddhist term that refers to the essence of things. It also applies to everything in the physical universe, suggesting that objects do not exist in isolation but are intrinsically linked to one
another.
Nai is a negation, and an expression of sadness over the repudiation of the ties linking all living and nonliving entities. It is also a concept that reestablishes such bonds and reasserts the importance of treating all animate and inanimate objects with great care. It can be understood as "What a waste", or the misuse of something that can be made valuable. It is finding the Buddha in the fabric.
It is similar to the concept of Gaia. Gaia is the Greek supreme goddess of Earth. The Gaia concept is an ecological hypothesis that the Earth is a self regulating complex interacting system that maintains everything, and that the climatic and biogeochemical conditions are interlocked.
The fabrics are pieced with no apparent pattern except for the aim of making a larger piece of cloth from the scraps.
They speak of decades of hardship in the home that made them. Each scrap sewn with care to cover damage incurred by use, giving it yet another life. They speak of an abhorrence of waste, of creatively making something new from something old, making something from leftovers.
The pieces are sewn together sometimes with sashiko stitches. These fabrics can be made of either cotton, hemp or a combination of both. and almost all of the pieces shown will be indigo dyed in solids, shibori, kasuri (ikat), or shima (stripe) patterns; many will have combinations of multiple patterns.
This concept was an important one for western quilters of previous centuries who creatively made something new from collages of pieces of cloth that were pieced together in specific patterns.
The Japanese used the cloth to mend holes, reinforce worn areas of sleeping futon or work clothes. The cloth is layered to increase warmth and durability. The cloths are used to make futon, cushion covers (zabuton), furoshiki, dust and floor rags. Created because of the need for mending cloth, it is an unplanned art form. They are what happens when design and composition are intuitive and what exists determines the possibilities.
The sheer variety of tones of indigo, the juxtaposition of pattern, the scale changes between patterns and patches, the free-form and meandering stitching, the random assortment of color combinations is very beautiful.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
THE JAPANESE ART OF KUSAKIZOME
SOME HISTORICAL THOUGHTS Because of climate, the growth of certain dye plants in India made available the raw ingredients necessary to print and paint bright colors on cotton. The availability of these dye plants, the time consuming processes to use these dyes on cloth and the dangers of travel before the 16th century made these dyes, fabrics and techniques relatively unknown in Europe prior to the 16th century. In the West, the earliest recorded description of printed fabrics come from the Greek geographer Strabo (63 BC-20 AD). In the middle of the 17th century the Dutch and English, while trading in India, realized there would be a market for these printed textiles. They began to import them to Europe. By the end of the 17th century the popularity of these printed and painted fabrics, called chintz in the West, was well established. In the East, during the Nara period (646-794 AD), the Japanese had became proficient in obtaining beautiful colors and patterns with simplified resist techniques using the same dyes. Much of their information on dyeing is thought to have come from India through China and Korea. The dyes and dyeing techniques brought by immigrants from Korea and China changed not only Japanese dress but introduced more colorful fabrics, as it did in the West 10 centuries later. The dyes affected the techniques used to pattern cloth and resulted in fabric that was typically Japanese. Traditional Japanese resist dyeing techniques are the result of highly specialized craftsmen whose precision indicates that their skills were developed over a long period of time. The dye processes they used were time consuming, precise, tedious and labor intensive. The Meiji restoration of 1867 brought reforms to Japan and contact with the West. Imported textile machines and synthetic dyes initiated changes and dye standards deteriorated. The dyeing techniques which do not lend themselves to mass production continue today mainly because of the Japanese appreciation of hand-crafted works. In Japan, the old dyes lacked a name to differentiate them from synthetic dyes. In 1958 Akira Yamazaki coined the term Kusaki-zome. Kusaki-zome dyes may be applied to natural fabrics or yarn by immersion into a dye vat (batik or tie-dye) or by direct application (painting, printing or stenciling). The kusaki-zome method of dyeing involves extracting the dyes from the dye material and making highly concentrated, stock solutions that can be stored in the refrigerator until needed. The dyes can be purchased from dye companies, herb companies, the supermarket, grown in the garden or foraged in the fields. These dyes may be used on any natural fiber: cotton, linen, wool, silk, ramie, and viscose rayon. © M Joan Lintault
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, September 01, 2008
なんばあい NANBA AI~FRESH INDIGO
Using the fresh leaves of indigo (Polygonum tinctorium) for dyeing is an alternate way of using indigo. There are many recipes on the internet for dyeing with fresh leaves that give wonderful clear hues of blue, on silk, cotton and wool.
Time: About 4 hours
1. Pick 16 oz. of fresh indigo leaves, put them in a bucket and add just enough hot tap water to cover the leaves.
2. Heat the solution to 160 degrees F. over a period of two hours. Don’t heat it too quickly.
3. Strain the liquid and squeeze liquid from the indigo leaves into the strained liquid.
4. Add 2 Tbsp. baking soda to the liquid and stir a little.
5. Pour the liquid from one bucket to another for a few minutes, or until the solution turns dark green/blue. This oxidizes the dissolved indoxyl, changing it to indigo.
6. Dissolve 2 Tbsp. Thiox in warm water, pour it into the dyebath, cover and set the pot in a larger container of water that is just hot enough to keep the dyebath at 100 to 120 degrees F. for about an hour.
7. Meanwhile, soak 2 to 4 oz. of yarn in hot water.
8. When the dyebath has turned yellow, add the wet yarn—carefully, to minimize adding oxygen to the solution. Leave it in the dye for 20 minutes. Remove it gently and let it oxidize by hanging it on a wooden rack. The yarn will turn blue as it reacts with oxygen in the air.
9. Let the yarn dry for as long as it soaked in the bath. One dipping and airing is usually enough to richly color wool yarn, but for intense colors on cotton or silk, repeat the soaking and airing two or more times. You can put successive batches of yarn into the same dyebath, getting lighter colors each time, until the yarn no longer turns blue. Then discard the dyebath. It is safe to pour down the drain. Scrub stains from the pot.
10. After the final airing, wash and rinse the yarn.
Friday, August 15, 2008
TRIBAL EYE: Woven Gardens
This is a wonderful video about Persian carpets called "Woven Gardens". If you love weaving, carpets and dyeing you will enjoy this video that was part of the BBC television series "Tribal Eye" hosted by Sir David Attenborough. Of all the individual videos in this series this is my favorite.
It is about the nomadic Qashqai tribe of Iran and the tribal art of carpet-making in Persia and the distinctive patterns of the different clans and tribes. So get make yourself comfortable, get popcorn and something to drink, the video is 49 minutes long.
