Witches of Ogden 2

Here are photos of some of the pieces I produced at our recent indigo dyeing retreat. I didn't take the time to do the complex stitching that some others did. Their results were truly amazing. But for my purposes I am quite pleased with what I was able to produce with soy wax, wrapping and folding.

We all found that the rayon/silk scarves absorbed the dye better than the cotton. My scarf was a very high-contrast zebra-stripe pattern, created by pole-wrapping and then scrunching. Knowing I would never wear it, I dipped it briefly, unwrapped, into a tired vat of indigo, so that the white bits became light blue.

Here are the textures I was able to achieve with the soy wax. Clockwise from the top,
simply painting on the wax and then putting it in the freezer to harden, then crumpling;
pastry blender;
apple sectioner / biscuit cutter / tenderizing mallet;
tjanting and bristle brush;
grate from coffee machine;
wooden stamping block.


Folding the cloth in different ways and then sandwiching it between glass plates, held together with elastics, made a very effective resist. These pieces had very little dye on them after the first dyeing, so I re-folded them and repeated the dipping. They could still benefit from edge-dyeing, perhaps with a red dye, or perhaps stamping.




These pieces were accordian-folded, with the folds held in place with either bulldog clips, string or elastics, placed at intervals down the length of the folds. The metal from the bulldog clips added some rust to the piece, upper left.

I produced a couple of other pieces that I will keep "under wraps", in the hope I can fashion something into a Reflections submission.

I plan to attend a local indigo demo on Sunday, and I hope to be able to get a few juicy tidbits from the instructors there that may add to our experience.