I learned all sorts of neat stuff, and am also very firmly in love with indigo dye! It. Is. SO! Wonderful! Not only is it a gorgous shade of blue when it's done, -that looks veeeerry nice indeed with white!- the dying process itself is sooo cool! heart
I'm going to quote out an excerpt really quickly, 'cause this handout will explain the whole oxidazation thing alot better than I could.
"Dying with the indigo is complex. The indigo is a very chemically stable substance that will not react with anything. (in other words, it will not bind with cloth or fiber to dye it.) And is not soulable in plain water. In order to produce a dyebath, the indigo must be dissolved in an alkaline solution that has free hydrogen molecules. Hydrogen can be produced by splitting water molecules. The indigo will react with the hydrogen to form indigo white -which is actually, interestingally enough, a sort of limey green.
-.The cloth or fiber is soaked in this solution, then removed and exposed to the air. The indigo white (which has soaked into the fiber) will react with the oxygen in the air and revert back to the indigo- and turn blue before your very eyes. (Which, by the way, is really neat! It turns from mildly green, to a darker green, to a lightish blue, then to indigo. It's so cool, it looks like magic, or something.) This dye is now very stable and has been known to last for centuries. It also turns darker blue as it gets older!"
And it looks so nice on wool! I wish I had thought to bring some of mine to dye!! whee But, the super-neat thing about silk? Not only is it a wonderfully soft, shimmery, drapey fabric, it takes up dyes like no-ones business!! I have to buy myself some indigo and silk! Oh, and I aquired a indigo plant of my very own! His name is Norman. whee 3nodding
