Last year 2018 the Japanese indigoplants were doing well. I had to water them frequently , because it it was a hot and dry summer, but then they liked the warmth. It felt good that the water came from the ditch and not from the tap.
But how to make use of it, as I didn’t have so much wool prepared. So I extracted pigment as decribed by Kori here . The extraction is done with fresh leaves in september 2018.
from left to right, top to bottom :
1.bubbels and a a coppery sheen after the leaves are a day or so in tepid water, 2. after the leaves are removed I had an aquagreen fluid, 3. blue scum after adding lime and aeriating. A good invention for aerition is the paintmixer! 4. the scum has disappeared and the fluid is very dark, 5. then slowly the pigment settles to the bottom. I scooped of the fluid and put the remaining sludge in narrow pots and repeated. No picture of this part of the proces, 6. filtering in a fine woven silk cloth
The pigment! It looks not so dark as the indigo that is on the market. I suppose there is also chalk in it as a leftover from the proces. This won’t harm the dyeing but I expect is less concentrated.