Indigo Dyeing and beyond

I have been dyeing everything in sight for the past few days - all the small pieces of fabric I have been collecting for the past 4 months- and trying with different kinds of fabric (even paper), to see how well they absorb the indigo. 

This is my first time doing this at home. I did try to do this before here, but there was really no explanation on how to care for an indigo vat, how long to keep your fabric inside the vat, or how long before you wait for it to turn the blue you need, so on and so forth. There are so many questions that I would like to ask a professional indigo dyer… anyway…

I have been stitching my days away for the past months, being inspired by Japanese boro, sashiko, and of course the color blue. Some of the work you can see here if you like.

Since I use little pieces of fabric for my work, I wanted to search for the perfect blue. There isn't really a perfect shade of blue, just a perfect shade for me, that is, as I do have a lot of the very dark shades, I simply needed a somewhere in the middle kind of blue.

Not an easy task at all, especially this being my first time dyeing at home.

So far this is the whole collection, but there are still more things that need to be dipped in that vat. They really need it, I can assure you that.

 This is the mini set up in my mini balcony.

The light blues. Plus a piece paper that refused to be dyed ;(

The bit darker blues.

And the perfect blue for me!! Hooray!!

I loved doing this. Everything about it, even that strong, pungent smell is absolutely amazing. To watch the fabric come out of the vat looking bright yellow and then slowly bit, by bit turn into a beautiful blue color, is just magic. And I LOVE magic!!

I bought my DIY kit from here, but there are so many kits out there. I really can't recommend this enough.

As you probably figured by now, I have turned into an occasional blogger. It just happened naturally, the same way I blogged 3 times a week, now I simply can't and won't.  Perhaps it will come again, you never know.

I'm always here if you want to find me.

I wish you a beautiful blue and warm day today, where ever you might be.
Giova
P.S: I'm a terrible self promoter, but I would be really grateful if you check out my new things here and perhaps tell me what you think?