Saturday 19 January 2013
Frozen Indigo Gives Cold Blues
The hydro-sulphate indigo vat outside the front door has a thin sheet of ice on it's surface. I stir it every few days. It is minus 7 at night. Freezing during this coldest week of the year. The slightest breeze of the frozen solid snow goes right through a down jacket.
Miho and friends were over today and they were itching to do some indigo dyeing. You can't be outside more than a few minutes with your hands in ice indigo water. I tried something new. A simple roll of cotton placed on the surface ice. Sure enough, the resulting blues were ice cold. I wonder if the handkerchiefs will keep any of the cold when they are used to wipe sweaty summer foreheads six months from now.
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well, that's dedication, even I'm not that crazy - or that young!
ReplyDeletewow, snow and coooolld! ice indigo.
ReplyDeleteThinking of my own vat sitting in the cold, I am wondering if the ice indigo dyed blue will keep or will it fade as soon as the spring sun comes out again? Maybe I should break the surface of my vat as well and try it.
ReplyDeleteI wonder too. They were just cotton handkerchiefs. It might stay. I'll try a few tomorrow and see.
ReplyDeletegeez and that is not even snow country!
ReplyDeletelet us know if the color holds.
You have inspired me to check out my vats, aging in the mild winter weather. Love the cotton rolls and your comment about ice cold cooling the summer brow. Wow.
ReplyDeleteThe photo through the window is glorious. The window, the colored glass, the snow. What a grand meditation. Is this your mountain home?
Arigato gozaimasu.
Hi Cate,
ReplyDeleteThere were some original old battered wooden frame windows up there that I tried to mend. I gave up and made some new ones from scratch a few months back.