in the quest for more seasonal and local dye practice, i’m playing with the fresh japanese indigo grown by Tracey, making n mending club member, at their allotment (my balcony being out of use this summer for cladding renewal!)

i’ve been used to using imported powder for so many years, making a reduction vat the way many of us do, in all the many methods. i’ve extracted powderd indigo before in small amounts, but always found it a bit tedious and this year again i wondered why i wasn’t just making a fresh vat? I don’t want to store or ship it.. so why was i trying so hard to make powder?!

i’ve been saving my wee to use for dyeing experiments for years. i searched for use of old wee and fresh indigo or woad leaf. there’s not so much written about this method. . is it because of modern distaste for our wee?

the more i learn about urine uses, the more it makes sense to use it. it was valuable stuff. collected on mass in mill towns and tanneries. it’s free ammonia! used by roman’s and others to wash hair, clean houses and make colour.

it would have been used for indigo and woad production. it seems the simplest, most economical and local i can do. i tested a little on a cold leaf extraction liquid and it worked to precipitate the indigo – the ammonia acts as an alkali, as would lime or soda ash. so i decide with the next picking of leaves to do a fresh leaf and stale wee extraction and vat.

here’s a tip…

those early summer camp trips and festivals – do your morning tent wee into a funnel into an airtight container. by indigo harvest time you’ll have stale wee!

Process

i collected 300g of fresh japanese indigo leaves on a sunny day.

fresh leaf dyeing

100g leaves for a fresh leaf salt rub. a dainty silk top that belonged to my recently departed best friend nic. she’d have liked that.

I added some lime to the residue and decanted it for a pretty green paint.

cold water extraction for pigment

150g leaves into a 2 litre jar and filled with cold water, weighed down with a glass pot. left for 36 hours.

extraction was strained after 3 days, having reached a strong turquise colour with leaves looking yellower.

it went to blue and foamy with aeration, a little soda ash and 1/4 tsp lime added.

after a day, it wasn’t settling.. so added another 1/2 tsp lime and gave it another aeration. immediately there’s some signs of the indigo pigment sinking..

and, success!

after 8 hours, i siphoned off the supernatant, topped up the indigo residue (a lovely deep blue that splattered my white trousers and dyed beautifully!) with cool water to wash and left to settle again. then after half hour i siphoned off most of that liquid and put the liquid paste into a small jar to further settle. this will be for making paint and ink. i made a little maya blue with clay and some watercolour with gum.

i warmed the supernatant and added a tsp fructose to reduce. it’s made lovely pale mermaid blues on linen cloth and rayon yarn, a greenish gold on silk boucle yarn and pale turquoise on silk cloth and cotton yarn.

Sig (stale urine) extraction and vat

50g leaves, 50ml very old wee and 150ml water.

i filled the jar and left to soak. after a few hours the mermaid blue appeared and it got darker and darker overnight with floating indigo particles. splashes dyed a pale blue that stayed after washing. . is it as easy as that?!

after 24 hours, i strained it and added a little hot water and fructose to reduce it to a proper dye vat. i waited an hour, with it in a warm bath. no change..

3 days later, it’s still not reduced, although some blue is getting into the yarns tested. so i added 100 ml strained banana juice from frozen banana pulp.

a day later, some flecks of blue appearing, and possibly some separation. it is a sloooow process that needs patience.

another day later, more warming, another tsp fructose. still blue.

i think it needs more alkali, so i’m putting it in the boiler cupboard and forgetting about it until next batch of sig is ready in a few weeks..

update * i’ve now tested the ph of things which explains a bit.

another batch of sig (years old !) from my workshop – 9+

one week old wee – 6.5

sig you indigo vat – 7

so i’ve added 100ml old sig to the indigo vat.

Four days later… signs of life!

a very pale result on some silk. but the vat is definitely reducing. so i’ll keep it warm in the boiler cupboard and add more old wee once it gets to ph9. patience…

i’ve lost track of time. maybe 2 weeks? but tonight, after being immersed all day, this came out 🩵