Indigo Love...

A few weeks ago, I took the plunge and experimented with some indigo textile dye work. Feeling a bit out of my comfort zone, I reread instructions over and over for a few days before attempting the work. I am still so fixated on textiles.... Especially LINEN!!! Nothing feels like it! Dyes like it! And now that I have made a shawl out of the piece hanging on the end of the closeline (below)... WELL! Nothing hangs like it. 

Above, the plant design is meant to mimic the indigo plant. The pattern was achieved by my attempt at Japanese Shibori or African Adire - take your pick. The process is basically the same: stitching the cloth closed before placing in dye vat. This piece and the long shawl piece below are made from antique linen sheets. I guess that's why I do not ever recall finding a scraf that feels so wonderful and hangs so well. It would probably be very expensive to use, if not hard to find.... I just happened to have a few.

Antique linen sheet strip that I made into a shawl.

Blended knit fabric that was an fairly ugly mauve color, turned from a frog to a prince in the Indigo!

When I got to the end of this laborious two day process, I was sure I would not do it again.... I was cautioned by my friend and fellow artist Janet Taylor Pickett to not speak too quickly. She was right. Indigo has crept into my soul.... I will be back! with a better sense of how to push the medium toward what I see in my head.

Left: the end result of the quilt. Called a six point star pattern, taught to me by a master quilter. Thank goodness the pattern is forgiving for someone like me who does not like to measure. :-)