Indigo workshop warm up sessions

2020/01/27
category: Dyeing
tag: Indigo dye, Natural Indigo Workshop

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Our new natural indigo dyeing workshop will open this spring 2020!

Here are the results from some warm up sessions we tried out at the end of last year.

We have tried cotton scarves, tenugui, hankerchiefs and little bags.

My friend is dyeing a gradient onto a large cotton scarf by dipping and slowly extracting the fabric multiple times.

Here are some inspiration fabrics.

What is a tenugui?

The 2nd and 4th dyers in the picture below chose to dye tenugui but what is it? It’s essentially a piece of plain woven cotton cloth. Usually about 35 x 90cm in size, the long edges are neat (woven in, selvedge) and the short edges are just cut, so may fray. In Japan everyone knows what a tenugui is, but they don’t necessarily use it in everyday life. Some common uses include wiping sweat in summer, like a sweatband, as a dishcloth or washcloth, wrapping personal items. They are also often sold and used just as decoration, you can hang them as art or make them into a noren curtain. They make great souvenirs and here on Awaji you can find some with local designs on. Here are 2 examples I can think of off the top of my head:

There is a really cool mural down in tsushi in a tunnel in Minami Awaji and they made a tenugui of it:

https://karatekawara.com/shopping/tui-tenugui/

There is also tenugui with comics/cartoons about the local dialect here on Awaji Island:

https://ameblo.jp/49rhythm/entry-11820027879.html　

Anyway, if you come to our workshop you can make your own tenugui and it would be so unique and personal and filled with happy blessed memories!

1 person also brought an old t-shirt. In that case we weigh it and charge by the weight of the fabric. Heavy fabric absorbs more indigo dye so it is more expensive. Printed tshirts can be really fun to dye.