I was always a bit nervous with indigo and had a few failures, trying to make a working vat. Discouraging every time. Not this time. I just gave it another go, using Michel Garcia’s organic vat, using indigo, lime and fructose crystals. And succeeded! I didn’t want to believe it but it really worked and its magic! How the fabric turns from white to green, teal and eventually to blue. The more often the fabric is dipped into the vat, the darker the blue shades that can be achieved.

I also love the idea that the vat can be used over a period of time, but it needs to be a bit looked after, get fed, stirred and if necessary revived!

I used a couple of shibori techniques (folding, clamping and binding) to achieve simple yet very beautiful patterns.

Dyeing in progress, the teal colour will magically turn into dark blue.

 
This one is made with black walnuts bound into the silk and resisted with rubber bands.

Bound with gum nuts, it event took a bit of the colour!

Over dyeing a silk scarf, rust dyed before.

 
This scarf is eco dyed with eucalyptus leaves, then twice dipped into the vat.

And my new pair of cotton indigo socks. Who said socks are boring x mas presents…?