The Life of an Indigo Vat

By Catharine Ellis

(Reposted blog from Natural Dye: Experiments and Results , on 26 February, 2021)

Over the years I have built, used, and discarded many indigo vats. Sometimes I have kept them going for a very long time. I have finally declared the 5 year old, 100 liter henna vat “done”. I have added indigo pigment, lime and additional henna to it many times and although it is still dyeing well, the space available for that dyeing (above the “sludge” at the bottom) has gotten very, very small. 

As many of you know, I have spent this last year at home getting to really know my fermented indigo vats. I have followed a rather strict protocol. Each vat began with a certain amount of indigo pigment, a source of alkalinity (soda ash or wood ash lye) and various plant based materials to begin and sustain the fermentation (wheat bran, madder root, dried indigofera leaves, etc.). Only small amounts of lime and bran have been added over the last year to sustain pH and fermentation. At no time have I added additional indigo.

Last May I was trying to achieve a wide range of blue shades from the very palest to very darkest. I was a bit dismayed to find that all of my vats were dyeing too dark to give me the pale shades I desired at the time.  I knew (in theory) that if used the vats enough, the indigo content of the vats would decrease but had no idea how long that would take, or how much dyeing I would need to do. No matter how much I dyed, it didn’t seem to happen.…

Now, a year after the vats were first made, I can see progress.

Indigo on cotton cloth: 1-15 ten-minute dips. May 2020

Indigo on cotton cloth, same vat: 1-24 ten-minute dips. February, 2021

Some observations:

This is a long process….

Two dips in May, 2020 gave the equivalent shade as 5 dips in February, 2021

The dark blue that was achieved from 12 dips in May, 2020 was not achieved, even after 24 dips in February 2021

The subtle differences in the darkest shades are difficult to discern from the photos – but they are there.

I now realize the value of having a number of vats: from old to new, weak to strong. It’s something I have heard Michel Garcia say on more than one occasion, but sometimes we just have to observe and learn the lessons on our own. 

This spring, I will not discard my weakening vats, but will add another vat for the strong, deep blues that I am currently needing to build up black colors on my woven cellulose fabrics.