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natural indigo powder bath dipped 8 times on white linen
after so many times i really started to love the color
it's dark and the blue is still very intense

for the bath i used soda ash and hydrosulfite in the form of color remover
and i'm looking into ways that are environmentally friendly
like this beautiful japanese methode or this western methode
with wheat bran you can use yeast as well

now the hard thing is dyeing a big piece even ...
i know how to do it but it needs a special set up that i'm working on
involving rain water , a large bucket and a table to lay the fabric on after
you remove it from the bath to avoid unevenness


... dyeing with indigo is even more of a pleasure than other natural dyes
because you have to be so gentle to avoid air getting into the vat
and it doesn't have to be boiled so you don't get hot or burn your hands
( a beginners mistake i hope..)

this is how fabrics are hung out to dry in china
a lovely sight

green is next on my wish list..

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enclothing by daijiro mizuno

rca summer show






mr&ms potato
scholten&baijings



+ the 2008 antwerp fashion show



more on indigo tomorrow

◀

i couldn't speak till i had gotten a dark color + INDIGO
now i'm trying to get the blue more dark
some more samples in the set

and the book i ordered on indigo dyeing is very good
with very good advice on how to make an indigo vat
and i liked this technique

so that's what i'm going to do wright now
+ it's finally summery in amsterdam

have a nice weekend !

◜ ◝ ◟ ◞

okay hanging up shelves and cleaning out
closets took a bit longer ...

ordered more natural dyes and
tried out corn sauce thickener
together with the dye and it works
for silk screen printing !

in love with sumach at the moment

architectural jelly competition
via dezeen

and i like the trivet from billet
apparently swedish but i couldn't find the manufacturer

▎ ▎

i like this copy too by kueng & caputo


going to take some days off to fix shelves for the kitchen

and to reorganize...i'll show you when it's finished

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love the new winter collection by humanoid
the blanket is just...perfect

tsuru watanabe

it is one thing to dye little pieces
doing bigger pieces turns your kitchen into
this

so the kitchen and the living room are
a big mess now until we get more shelves

╱

copy by kueng caputo

it was fun to watch all the children's clothes at the fair
and kind of unreal to see whole outfits no bigger then 30cm/12inch
some highlights were

gold
lili and the funky boys
kidscase

‗

some colors for today

here+here

... dyeing with natural dyes is a real pleasure
it has something to do with how it behaves and
the feeling that you could eat it like in the case of sumac ,
still have to try that one

i like them all but the fifth from the top is my
favorite and i'm going to use it on my first attempt
at sewing an apron


+ tracy's recently opened shop olive brown
love this bag

◗

now let's see , frank bought a very nice
chopping board
....and i bought a very beautiful piece of flax






+ simone decker

++ eco color thanks to ah-yi

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well the nice thing for next weekend is that the dipped tea towels
are invited to participate in the zwarte markt as part of the kleine fabriek
fair ! my tea towels at a children's clothes fair you might ask ?

the idea is that they want to give the fair a more grown up atmosphere :
those are the ones who make and buy them and also because last year
the clothes from belgium were quite popular which are as long as i can remember
more simple and more grown up in their choice of colors

plus belgium has a long tradition of quality fabrics which sort of
dyed out here in the netherlands

quite excited about visiting the fair...







TZAWA from the boys collection
but i would buy it for a girl too
not available over here yet ...

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this was the closest i could get to dark brown and it's more a purple brown
so i ordered browns and blues which i'm missing
the other colors you can see here

the next step is how to dye with indigo and woad
and after that how to get a nice dip
in the meantime i'm working on a prototype ....

here you can see a clip of the process of making woad colorants/pigments in france

so nice

and textile magicians

this weekend i've got something really nice coming up
i'll tell you more tomorrow
( have to find some pictures to illustrate it)