Why buy indigo? 9 reasons to use indigo...

More about 9 reasons to use Indigo

1) Indigo is great for cotton and especially for blue jeans
Cotton is one of the world’s most popular fabrics for clothes. With indigo there is no need to mordant the fabric beforehand. Mordanting is a time-consuming process but most other natural dyes require you to mordant the cotton first. The original blue jeans were dyed with indigo.

2) Indigo is fast
Indigo dyes quickly, typically taking 5 to 10 minutes. It is good for tie dye and shibori patterns as the dye does not have time to penetrate under the ties, resulting in good pattern definition with clear dark and light areas. It is also good for paste (flour) resists.

3) Indigo dyes at low temperature
(40 to 50 degrees C) and is therefore energy saving. And Indigo is good for batik as the wax does not melt.

4) Indigo is economical
Indigo is very concentrated: 10 grams of Indigo can dye up to 1 kilo of fibre.

5) Indigo is environmentally friendly.
There is no need for harmful chemicals in a fermentation vat.

6) Indigo is the only way to get good green colours
Overdye a woad or indigo-dyed blue with yellow dyes such as weld or fustic. There really isn’t a dye plant that gives good bright greens. You can get mossy greens with some plants or with gray wool and weld or weld and iron.

7) Indigo is thought to protect against moth damage
Indigo was traditionally used to dye blue cloth in Japan. Indigo dye was long-lasting and practical, did not show the dirt and the Japanese believed that indigo dye protected the material against moths and insects.



9) Indigo will dye very many types of materials,
including cotton, silk, wool, feathers, basket canes, willow, leather, mother of pearl buttons, paper, and, if you are not careful, it will dye your finger nails blue…

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Updated on 22 April 2024
Website & photos by Mike Roberts ©2006-24 Wild Colours natural dyes