#Blue indigo dye series

It can take up to two weeks to prepare and ferment a finicky vat of natural indigo dye. But of course, it was more profitable to grow it in the colonies, where labor was cheap, or even free, due to slavery.Ĭompared to other dyes, indigo is exceedingly complex in chemistry and application. Indican, the chemical source of the indigo dye, is the same no matter which of these plants it comes from, whether indigofera from India, Africa or Central America woad from Europe or polygonum tinctorium from Japan. There are several different types of plants that bear indigo and they grow all over the world, from subtropical to temperate climates in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. It drove trade for more than a millennium, has been worn by kings, peasants and “blue collar” workers alike, and encouraged the colonization of the Global South. As Jenny Balfour-Paul writes in her authoritative and sweeping book Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans, it has a story as rich (and problematic) as any other prized commodity such as silk, tea, cotton, coffee or sugar. Plant indigo has been in use since at least the fourth millennium BC, according to an old piece of dyed cotton cloth found in Peru. Let’s take a closer look at humanity’s favorite blue pigment and find out once and for all: Is plant-based natural indigo superior to fossil-fuel based indigo? And if it is, would it even be possible to bring it back?

#Blue indigo dye series

Let’s Settle the Matter: Is Natural Plant-Based Indigo Dye More Sustainable Than Synthetic Indigo?Ĭontinuing our series of mythbusting and clarifying, we now turn our eye toward another essential ingredient for denim: indigo dye.Ĭonscious consumers have a tendency to romanticize the natural stuff that is produced from plants, swooning over its long history of use in traditional and artisan fashion production, while turning up their noses (in theory) at modern synthetic dyes that make churning out millions of $20 fast fashion jeans possible.īut is that sustainable snobbery warranted when it comes to indigo dye? The story of plant-based versus synthetic indigo is a little more complex than that… it’s not so blue and white. Sadly we cannot ship the indigo dye outside of the UK.Is Natural Indigo More Sustainable than Synthetic? You can purchase real indigo dye from our online shop and we have recipes available online too. Indigo ages beautifully and the living colour continues to evolve through wearing, washing and exposure to the sun. The deep blue/black colour of the Japanese Kendo fabric is popular with martial artists as it represents victory, while the dusty pale blues of our Indian cotton khadi inspires memories of hot sunny days. We love the variety of shades that Indigo can achieve. Darker indigo shades are achieved with multiple dips rather than a stronger dye bath. The colour achieved depends on the type of vat used and the number of times the fabric is dipped. Dyeing with indigo is a process that requires time, accuracy and skill. Each time the cloth is dipped and exposed to the air the shade of blue gets deeper. As the cloth is pulled from the vat it appears green until exposure to the air oxidises the dye and turns it blue. Vegetables and botanicals contain impurities meaning each dye batch can contains hundreds of natural variants that can cause irregular results and beautiful colour variations. The beauty of Indigo dye and indeed all natural dyes is in the unpredictability of the results. A typical Indigo vat is like a living organism and needs to be constantly nurtured. There are many variation in dye vat recipes, some using fruit and other botanicals and some using ingredients from your local hardware shop. Indigo dye is an organic compound made from leaves that are broken down through a process of fermentation and composting. The plant that produces indigo depends on the region, whether grown in tropical India or subtropical Japan. There is a character and depth of colour with natural dye that is not achievable with synthetic dyes, and the unpredictability of natural dyes is well suited to small scale dyeing. Around for centuries, indigo is one of the oldest dyes used for textiles and a firm Cloth House favourite. The rich blue shades of real indigo dye are instantly recognisable and tremendously popular.