![]() ![]() ![]() The unreduced Indigo should float to the surface of the vat and produce a ‘flower’. If it is still dark or blue, there is still unreduced Indigo floating in the vat. Stir gently and then wait until a blue flower rises to the surface and the vat has turned a light green or yellow colour. (CAUTION: Wear your face mask and rubber gloves) Test with pH strips and continue to add the Alkali to the vat until the pH changes to 8-10.Īs you add the Calcium oxide this produces bubbles as the chemicals react with the water. Slowly add some of the powdered Calcium Oxide to the dye vat and stir thoroughly. For wool dyes this should be between 8-10 pH. The Alkali changes the pH of the dye solution to a base. (You can use cold water as well, but it is faster to use the warm tap water.)Īdd about 1/4 to 1/3 of the Indigo Paste to the Vat and Stir.Īdd a similar amount of the Fructose solution to the Vat. Fill the slow cooker with warm water as well, and set the temperature to the Low setting to keep the Vat warm. Add hot tap water to the beaker and place it into the slow cooker. The dye vat should be at a temperature of 30-60 deg C (80-140 degrees F) degrees to allow fermentation to take place. As I dye the yarns and the colour in the vat reduces, I will add more of the stock solutions to the Vat. So I only add a portion of the Indigo stock solution at a time – about 1/4 – 1/3 of the stock mixtures. Indigo Fructose Solutionsīecause I am using a glass beaker (2 Litre – 3 Litre) as my dye vat, if I were to put all of this dye stock solution into the vat at the same time, this would create a very strong dyebath. Add the Fructose sugar into a small glass jar filled with 150 ml (6 oz) of warm tap water. Instructions for making the Indigo paste are given in the previous article.Ħ0 grams of Fructose + 150 ml of water. I have dissolved the Indigo cake into a dye paste before I add it to the dye vat. Some of the chemicals can be corrosive and the fine dust powders can damage your lungs if breathed in. This helps to dissolve all of the ingredients before they are added to the dye vat.īefore you start to work with the dye chemicals, put on protective rubber gloves and wear a face mask. I make a stock solution of Indigo and the Fructose in small glass jars filled with about 150 ml (6 oz) of water. This vat uses Pickling Lime – Calcium Oxide CaO – (not Calcium Dioxide CaO2) as the alkali.Ģ0 grams of Indigo should dye about 2 kilos of yarn depending on the strength and darkness of colour that you wish to achieve. I am using an Indigo – Fructose – Calcium Oxide vat adapted from a dye recipe by J.N. As the vat ferments, the indigo is converted to a dye that will adhere to the fibre. The fermentation of the vat occurs slowly over several days or weeks. When the fibre is lifted back into the air, the Oxygen returns to the Indigo, and the colour changes from white, to green, to blue. This separates the Indigo blue into Indigo white in the vat, allowing the Indigo to attach to the fibre. Fermentation of the vat occurs with the addition of a sugar/fructose solution.Īs the fermentation process takes place, one of the Oxygen molecules is removed from the water. The vat solution has to be in an alkali state. Indigo blue dye is produced by a chemical reaction in the dye vat. If you wish to dye a larger amount at the same time then you will need to use a large bucket in order to fit the material and an alternate method of keeping the Vat warm. The glass beaker also also allows you to see what is happening within the vat.Ī 2-3 litre beaker will allow you to dye approx. I do have to watch the water level in the crock pot carefully as I am not able to place a lid on it, so the water can evaporate quite quickly from the slow cooker. The heated crock pot keeps the dye vat warm. I placed glass beaker inside the crock pot, and filled outer slow cooker with water. I found that using the large vats, I could not see what was actually happening to the vat so it was difficult to make adjustments and what to add to correct the vat: more sugar, more alkali or more dye.Īs I use slow cookers for much of my other dye work, I realized that I could also use the crock pots for the indigo vat as well by using a large glass jar or glass beaker as the vat. I often had trouble getting the vat to ferment fully and had to discard the vat and start again. Liles Indigo dye recipes – using Calcium Oxide – CaO as the Alkaliįor many years, I followed the traditional indigo dye vat methods using large 5-10 gallon dye vats, trying to keep the dye vat warm and going, by using various heating systems such as heating the large metal pots on the stove, or beer brewing heating pads, placing the vat beside a heater and wrapping it with blankets. This is another method for making an Indigo Fructose Dye Vat that I developed using ideas from Michel Garcia’s 1-2-3 Indigo vat and J.N. ![]()
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