I love colour! And I got this white cotton blouse from the second hand shop, and I had this indigo project in mind (one of the 192 projects I plan to do).

indigo vat

Summer and high temperatures, the perfect weather to start an Indigo Vat. I used the fruit vat method (over ripe bananas, indigo powder and calcium hydroxide/lime) from Maiwa. Easy to follow.

Indigo

I folded and bound the back of the blouse into a spider web pattern (kumo shibori) and for the sleeves I bound kowhai seeds to achieve a nice delicate pattern (ne maki shibori). After several dips into the indigo vat, my blouse made this beautiful transformation.

Indigo play by Birgit Moffatt

I also disscovered that the rusty looking colour on the sleeves comes from the kowhai  seeds I drilled holes in before…

Indigo play by Birgit Moffatt

Summertime and our 5 sheep needed a haircut. Susi is the boss of  a group of 5 sheep and a very gorgeous Gotland mix.
Said, done.

shearing Gotland Susi

shearing Gotland Susi shearing Gotland Susi  shearing Gotland Susi

This is the very nice fleece of Susi:

shearing Gotland Susi

After washing and carding, this is the result. The wool is coarser than merino wool but it works really well for sculptural felt.

felted vase from Susi by Birgit Moffatt