Indigo

We visited a traditional Chhipa block-print and dyeing family business in Bagru outside Jaipur, that uses natural dyes. Chemistry, botany, geometry, skilled craftsmanship and hard labor underly traditional block-printing and dyeing. 

I learned that indigo is a substantive dye from a shrub and does not require a mordant to bind to cotton cloth. Some substantive dyes come from plants and others, like ochres, come from minerals. Adjective dyes require a mordant to permanently fix and bind to cotton fiber. Mordants include metallic salts of alum, chrome, iron, tin, and/or salt, vinegar, lime, urine, plant compounds and wood ash.

The fabric on the right is coated with a mordant that changes the printed pigment to black.

Traditional dyeing methods often use a mud resist – dabu -- made from mud and gum (gum arabic from the babul tree.) The pattern is block-printed on the cloth with the mud paste to preserve the base colour of the fabric and then sprinkled with sawdust to dry it.

                                     

The indigo vat or pit can be up to 15 feet deep. 

After the cloth is dyed and dried, the mud resist is washed out in water.

I also visited a paper business that makes paper from shredded jute. The paper is then coated with betel nut juice or indigo and burnished by hand to a smooth high sheen. Below is a piece of burnished indigo paper to which I have applied an acrylic wash and block- printed with gold ink.