Everything Indigo – The Colour That Connects Us — New Clothing & Shawls
The fact that green plants can give us blue colours is something that never ceases to amaze us.
We try to get to know as many kinds of blue as possible. From the natural indigo we sell and use in all our clothing, bedding and cloth: (indigofera tinctoria) which is grown and harvested in India, to the robust and remarkable persicaria tinctoria, which will thrive even when planted in our research garden in the Pacific Northwest.
LISTEN TO JENNY BALFOUR PAUL
Indigo Journeys: from Ancient Arabia to Modern Manhattan
Indigo, the world’s only natural blue dye, reflects the beauty and mystery of our blue planet in textiles and art, connecting cultures spanning the Americas to Asia. In this illustrated talk, Jenny Balfour-Paul, a renowned indigo dyer, researcher and author, will tell the compelling story of this most magical and loved of all dyes—how it became the guiding thread of her career and explorations in remote parts of the world.
PRESENTED BY:
Saturday, May 16, 2026 at 10:00 am PDT via Zoom.
MAIWA SCHOOL OF TEXTILES
Recorded at the 2016 Maiwa School of Textiles Lecture Series.
Deeper than Indigo: Jenny Balfour Paul joins us to tell the tale of Thomas Machell: Seafarer, indigo planter, eyewitness to the first Opium War, adventurer, lover of the daughter of a cannibal chief, writer, painter, and journal keeper.
Learn the art of dyeing with indigo through a number of different indigo vats, including organic vats made with fruits, the iron vat, and vats made with plants. Learn a wealth of introductory and advanced shaped resist techniques on silk, linen, and cotton and how to handle materials in the dye vat to get the most from indigo.
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