Blue indigo

BLUE INDIGO

Indigo is a color that has a history as vivid as the color itself…

It is a color surrounded by magic and mystic legends! In some countries they have indigo gods, in other they think a pregnant woman shouldn’t prepare a vat… and in some communities in Mexico they put a doll inside the dye pot.

For me indigo is ALIVE…. It is a living being that has to be fed and taken care of. An indigo vat can last for years, if you take care of it correctly.

I actually think you need to be in a good mood for indigo to work! It is like ALCHEMY to me…. any little detail can change the color.

My first post was about the indigo extraction. So now I want to talk about the history and process of preparing an indigo vat.

Indigo is a whole world full of interesting facts! Starting with the fact that a blue pigment comes out of a green leaf. I found that amazing!

And it has special qualities, it protect us from UV rays, and in some countries like Morocco, the “blue people” used indigo dyed clothes to protect themselves from the sun, while crossing the dessert.

The “blue people”

The first Blue jeans were dyed with natural indigo too.

It was the only source of blue before 1865, when the German Baeyer discovered the synthetic blue color.

Since ancient times, this color was used all around the world, and different types of plants were used: for example in Europe they used “pastel” (isatis tinctoria), in Asia they used persicaria tinctoria, and in Latin America they used indigofera tinctoriaand indigofera guatemalensis.

But indigo pigment can’t be used as all the other natural dyes

Indigo is not soluble in water, so you need to prepare an oxidation-reduction to make it work.  We do this by mixing indigo with a base and a reducing agent. Even fruits can be used as reducing agents!!!

In lots of places people prepare indigo vats by using dangerous materials like hydrosulfite or sulfuric acid. These substances make in easier and quicker.

But we don’t like to use those substances to make it work.  We were lucky enough to learn natural dyes from Michel García. He is an expert French dyer that develop a recipe to prepare organic indigo vats. So we actually prepare organic vats using fruits and other organic and not dangerous materials.

Indigo is prepared differently all around the world. In Japan for example they prepare SUKUMO by using compost indigo leaves, in some other places they prepare indigo vats with fresh leaves.

And in Mexico we still have some recipes for preparing a fermentation bath by using “agave” and some local plants.

My teacher and friend Raúl Pontón teached me how to prepare an “otomí” indigo vat.  (Mexican way). It is a very long process that is part of my Mexican heritage, so I thought it was important for me to learn it.

Otomi recipe

Indigo is my favorite color!!!! A mix of blue and violet…a unique color!! And we definitely can’t achieve the same shades and effects with the synthetic version.

It is also a very difficult color to achieve, and it takes a lot of work!

BUT IT IS ALL WORTHED!!!!!

“The sacred, secret, ancient and profound art of ALCHEMY, reveals in esoteric texts and enigmatic emblems… a way to penetrate into the secrets of nature, life & death, unity, eternity and infinity…”

-Rocío Mena-