Indigo Tie Dye Shibori- The Complete Guide 2023

1. INDIGO MASTER CLASS INTRO: Hello and welcome to indigo Tai Chi. For Beginners, my name is Catherine and I've been dying for over eight years and I love all things textiles. I teach classes on Indigo online and also in person, I have a YouTube channel and an Instagram account dedicated just to dine sewing and upcycling. If you enjoy this class, I recommend you go over to YouTube and check out my channel. So this class is a general overview about Indigo dying and sugary folding. In this class, I'm going to go over which fabrics work best for indigo, over 20 folds for chivalry patterns, different indigo, that's how to mix up the VAT, had a dip in the vat, and finally, laundry instructions. The class is broken up into modules so you can navigate it easily. If you're wondering what kind of indigo to use, I recommend using the Jack card indigo kit. It's very affordable and it's easy to find. It comes with everything you need to get started. But if you can't find that kit, you can use any kit that you can find in a craft store or on Amazon, or wherever you like to buy your craft supplies. I'll get more into the nitty-gritty of indigo later in the class. Next, I'm going to do an overview of all the patterns. I show you how to fold in this class. First-order linear patterns starting with wrapped lines. Then we go into organic stripes, bold stripes, chevron pattern, undulating chevron pattern, the nail burrito, the crisscross pattern, diagonal stripe, and the diamond pattern. Next, let's go over circular patterns. I have concentric circles. The web pattern. Cool Moshe Boeri, also known as jelly fish pattern, spiral pattern, the nail head pattern, polka dot pattern, and the rap medulla pattern started the geometric patterns starting with the window pane. Then we go into the diamond pattern, the kaleidoscope pattern, the star pattern, the hexagon flower pattern, the triangle pattern, and then the fireworks pattern. So that concludes the pattern overview. And I hope to see you guys in the class. For the class project, I challenge you to pick your favorite three patterns from the linear designs, circular designs, and geometric designs. After you're done washing them and dry them, please post them in the class discussion section. I'd love for you to share your results and feedback. So without further ado, let's get into it. 2. Which Fabrics are Best for Indigo Tie Dye: So before we get started with our fully instructions, I want to talk a little bit about what kind of fibers work best for indigo dying. I personally really like to work with cellulose fibers, which means they come from plants. So that includes cotton, linen, rayon, this coast middle, any of those kinds of fabrics that come from plants take the indigo really well. You can also use silk or wool, but those fabrics are a little bit more high maintenance. I tend to stick to cotton just because I like to wear cotton and it's easy to find and I find it easiest to work with before you get started dying, anything you should wash your fabric in the washing machine on hot. I like to use central Paul, which is also known as dire as detergent. This is going to get all of the oil and dirt or any kind of sizing that might be on the fabric off of it. Sometimes when something is brand new, it's got like a starch on it from the factory. And you don't want that on the fabric when you're in the diet because it's going to prevent the die from sticking to the fabric that goes for all dying. If you don't have Center Paul, it's okay. But central Paul is great for best practices. Just make sure you don't wash it with any fabric, softener or any kind of sense, because that could also sit on top of the fabric and prevent the die from getting into your fabric. So once you get everything washed and dried, you'll be ready to die. In the next portion of the class, we're going to talk about folding. I have three different modules of folding. There's linear folds, circular folds, and geometric patterns. So let's get into it. 3. How to Shibori Fold: Linear Patterns: In this section, we're gonna go over some linear patterns. The supplies for this section are similar to the supplies for the circular patterns are going to need an irony pad or board and an iron, scissors, rubber bands, string, tongue depressors, nails, and paint sticks. Okay, Let's get into the folds. So first we're going to do the wrapped lines pattern. And this is a great pattern for bigger pieces of fabric because you can fold it up into a smaller piece. So first what I'm going to do is start with my 100% cotton that's been pre washed and I'm going to fold it in half like so. And I'm going to give it a good Press. And next I'm going to fold it into quarters. So for this particular lesson, the most important thing to keep in mind is that we're going to be doing a lot of accordion folding, which means one fold to the front and one fold to the back. So that's going to help get that even died distribution. So here I'm going to take the top part and fold it back and press it. Then I'm going to bring it forward and press it. And I'm going to keep that fold the same width each time I fold it back and forth, back and forth, pressing it in-between the folds so that it's really nice and crisp and exact. The more exact and crisp you are with your folds, the nicer the pattern, you're going to get four really exact patterns. I recommend using shooting quality type of fabric or thinner fabric. It's easier to fold it really precisely, if you're using a t-shirt or something, you can still get nice designs, but it's not as crispy and exact. So this one is about ready to be tied up. I'm gonna get my string out and I just kinda wanna show you the middle of the pattern on the visual aid is a fold. So that's what gives it that sort of perpendicular line. If you do multiple folds, you'll get multiple lines. So I'm going to take my string and tie it around the middle of my fabric. And then I'm going to start to wrap it around and make my way to the end. And then I'm going to bring it back towards the center and pass that original Not until I go to the other end and then I'm going to turn around again and come back down. I am using my other hand to secure the string to make sure it doesn't get loose. I want it to be really tight. And now I'm going to tie off that tail with the original naught. And here is a close-up of it so you can see what the finished tie looks like. The next one is organic stripes. And this is a really easy and classic pattern that I really love and it looks great on a t-shirt. So I just wanted to jump in real quick and say this visual aid was dyed with rit dye, which is a different kind of die than indigo dye. And you can see the difference in the visual aids. Rit dye totally works for dying and I've used it plenty of times. A lot of times people will take my workshop online and use red dye instead of indigo. If they can't find the indigo kit, which is totally fine. It's just a different kind of dye and it will have a little bit different results. Alright, so now that I've squared up my fabric, I'm going to start some folding. This is another accordion folds. So I'm going to start by folding it in half hamburger style and given it a nice press. Then I'm going to bring it back. And I'm going to do a long thin rectangle and I'm going to press it with my fingers first and then come in with my iron. You can see that the last fold does not go all the way to the edge, but that's fine because I'd rather have all of the inside folds the same width than the outside one matching. So I'm going to do the same thing on the other side. Just making sure to make my folds nice and crisp and take my time when I'm doing it. These folding processes are a little bit sped up so you can always go back and rewatch. Next I'm going to bring in my rubber bands. And I want the rubber bands to be equally spaced. And I want to start in the middle of that rectangle. I find the middle. And then I put my first rubber band forever. You put a rubber band is where you'll get a stripe. So I'm trying to evenly space the rubber bands on this piece so you can make them more narrow or farther apart. It's up to you. I'm just making sure they're really nice and tight so that that resist will be nice and crisp. And you can move the rubber band a little bit once they're actually on the fabric so you can adjust them to be exactly where you want them to be. Here is a close-up of the finished piece and it's now ready to go in the vat. The next pattern is the bold stripe. For the bold stripe, I'm going to be using the same accordion fold that I used for the organic stripe pattern, the one I just did. So I'm going to just make sure it's nice and flat and press it. And I'm going to be using tongue depressors to get the bold stripe look. I need to tongue depressors for each stripe. So for this one I'm using ten tongue depressors. And then I'm going to sandwich my fabric between the tongue depressors. And I'm picking the middle to start with just sort of eyeballing the middle. And then I'm going to wrap my rubber bands around the ends of the tongue depressors to get it nice and tight. And then I'll adjust it to be perpendicular to my rectangular fabric. So I'm just going to put my tongue depressors on the fabric, just going one-by-one and adjusting them to be equally spaced. For this one, I like to make sure that the fabric is nice and smooth underneath the tongue depressors. If it has a nice sort of ripples or wrinkles, the dye will get in between the tongue depressors and give you a less bold looking stripe. Once I get all of my sets of tongue depressors on, I can kind of make sure that I liked the placement of them and make sure that they are completely perpendicular. And you can see each set of tongue depressors as a stripe on that visual aid there. And here is a close-up of the finished folder ready to go into the vat. The next pattern is the Chevron, which is actually just a variation of the bold stripe. So instead of a perpendicular set of tongue depressors, I'm going to turn them to be a 45-degree angle. The visual aid I have here only had three sets, so you get three stripes of Chevron, but this one here, we'll have five. So you can kind of play with it and you can make them As far apart or as close together as you want. I would advise against going too close together because you want to make sure you get an adequate amount of space for the blue to get in there. And next is the undulating Chevron, which is also very similar. You're just going to turn your tongue depressors to be opposite directions. So 45-degree angles alternating and that's what will give you that sort of undulating Chevron look. Here is a close-up of it ready to go in the vat. And again, just make sure that the fabric is nice and flat between those tongue depressors. Next we have the nail burrito pattern. So this one is also going to be using an accordion folded piece of fabric that is going to be in a long rectangle. And I'm just making sure it's nice and pressed and you're going to take your nails. These are galvanized nails that I use only for indigo dying. Once you start using them for indigo, they will have indigo on them forever. I'm going to get my nails out. And then I'm going to start by putting the nail on the fabric perpendicular with the head on the edge. I'm going to roll the fabric up with those nails inside. And I'm going to put one on the right and then do a little turn and then do one on the left. So just taking my time to roll those nails alternating left and right into the roles. Just like a burrito. I like to put a nail about one every half an inch or so, just so that there's a lot of Nails, those nails are going to be opportunities for the die to go into that role. So they're gonna be channels for the die to go in. So you can see what it looks like once it's all rolled up, you can see the nail heads on both sides. And then I'm going to put a rubber band around the whole thing. I'm going to press the nails in in case they have fallen out at all. Just to make sure they're nice and secure. And you can see on the visual aid that part that's more blue, That's the outside of this fold. And the part with more white is the inside of the burrito. Here is a close-up of the fold and it's ready to go into the bat. Next is the diagonal stripe pattern. I'm going to be using a square piece of fabric for this one, and I'm going to fold it handkerchief style, meaning corner to corner diagonally. This fold is easiest with a square, but if you're not using a true square, you can kind of imagine it to be a square and just pick your points. Like if you're using a T-shirt, you can do this also. After I folded into a triangle handkerchief style like this, I'm going to just give it a nice press. And then I'm going to take the top part of my triangle and fold it backwards to continue the accordion folding on this one. But instead of doing it as a square, we're going to do it diagonally. So the fabric will kind of get thicker in the middle because the outside folds will have less fabric and the inside fold will have more fabric. So I just do the whole thing and make sure I'm pressing it each fold until I get to the last corner. Then I'll turn it over and do this same thing on the other side. This diagonal accordion folding is great for a diagonal stripe. But also in the next lesson we're gonna be going over it to Xiaomi folds. And you can use this diagonal fold as the basis for Xiaomi to, if you want to play around with different results. So just like the organic stripe, every single stripe is going to be its own rubber band. I'm just going to tie those on really nice and tight and then adjust them to be all equally spaced. So here it is. After I got five on bounds on, and it's ready to go into the bat. The next fold is the crisscross fold, which is a great pattern. If you want to do a really large piece of fabric, I'm going to start by folding it in half hamburger style and smoothing it out and getting it nice and pressed. And then I'm going to fold it into quarters and I'm going to press it again. And then I'm going to fold the tip that is the middle to the tip that has all four corners. Then I'm going to accordion folded handkerchief style, just like I did with the diagonal stripes, but since it's quartered, it's going to give you that crisscross look. This one can get kinda thick, so I'm just making sure to really iron it. Well, after I get the first slide done, I'm going to turn it over and do the same thing. Once it's ironed on both sides, I'm going to come in with a rubber band and put one in the middle and one on each side of that middle rubber band. The visual aid had three rubber bands, so I'm going to just do the same thing. So here is a close-up of it and it's ready to go into the bat. The next pattern is the diamond pattern. So I'm going to start with the same fold that I just used for the crisscross, folded in half, fold it in quarters, and then folded handkerchief style. Just a word to the wise. This full turned up best when you're using an iron and being precise, I'm going to take out my paint sticks and measure how thick I want to make my accordion folding. I'm going to fold it just like the crisscross pattern, but I want it to be about a quarter of an inch wider than the paint stick on both sides. So I'm just going to get my width established and then press the fabric into that shape. Then I'll do the same thing on the other side. This one can get really thick in the middle. So just make sure you use a lot of steam and really press down with that iron. So after it's pressed, I'm going to sandwich it between the paint sticks. For this one, I want you to keep in mind that the corner that has the most folds is the tip of the diamond in the middle. It's like the bulls-eye. So I just want to make sure that it's out on the outside of those pain sticks so that it can get that blue dye. So after I get them sandwiched, I'm going to tie my string around the middle. And then I'm going to start wrapping it really tight around those paint sticks, working my way out to the outside. And then I'm going to come back towards the middle and work my way to the other side. My string broke, so I just tied it to the other end of the string on a spool and just kept going. So if your string breaks, you can just tie it and keep going. Kinda like knitting. So once I get it completely wrapped, I'm going to tie it off in the middle and I want to make sure it's really nice and secure. So here is a close-up and it's ready to go in the vat. 4. How to Shibori Fold: Circular Patterns: In this section we're gonna go over the circular patterns. Now let's talk about supplies. I will put all of the links for the supplies I use in the description. First, you're going to need an iron to make sure your fabric gets nice and crisp. Or my shrubbery practice, I like to use this wool ironing pad that's actually designed for quilting, but it does a really good job for chivalry. But you can also just use an ironing board if you don't want to get the pad x, I'm going to be using cotton string, extra strong thread, nails, pennies, rubber bands, and of course some scissors. The first pattern we're going over is concentric circles. Going to take my fabric up and scrunch it like I was making one of those little ghost crafts that we used to make when you were little. And I'm going to take a rubber band and put it around about 2 " from the top of the fabric. I want to make sure it's nice and tight. Anything that is underneath the rubber band is going to stay white and anything that is exposed to the dye VAT will be blue. So each one of these circles on this visual aid is a rubber band. We're going to do three rubber bands. And I want to make sure I just get them very, very tight. If you wanted to do this pattern on a t-shirt, you could double up the fabric as unused, the front and the back together to just draw it up into one I'm fold. Or you could do a separate bind on the front and the back. It's up to you. If you do them together, whichever one is on top will probably have a brighter, more pronounced resist then whatever underneath, but it still will be the same pattern. So once you get it all tied up, you can adjust the rubber bands to be closer together or farther apart are exactly the same depending on the pattern that you wish to have. Next pattern I'm going to demo is this web pattern. And it's a little bit similar to the concentric circles pattern. And I like to kind of build off of the last fold in this class. So I'm going to draw it up again into that kind of ghost shape. And I'm just kinda creasing it with my hand. You don't need to use an iron for this one. For this folder, I'm going to be using string. This is a cotton kitchen twine and I'm going to come in and just tie a really tight double naught at the tip of my ghost polled. And I'm going to wrap it around the entire thing as I go down. I just sort of take my time because it can be a little tricky. And then once I get about two-thirds the way down, I'm going to come back up to the top. Again. Those markings that you see on the web in front of you are from the string. So I want to make sure I have a lot of wrapping around with the string. So I'll go up and down twice. Once I get back up to the top, I'm going to cut my string and tie it off with the little tail that I have leftover from the original, Not when I started doing the bind. I just do a double naught. And here is a close-up of this web pattern all tied up and ready to go. Next up is the jellyfish pattern, or also known as the Kumar shrubbery pattern. You can do this pattern close together or further apart, and this one was done randomly. My plan for this demo is to do five bound tentacles on this one. So I'm going to start in the middle. And I'm going to use my extra strong thread. And I'm just going to start to wrap around the thread about seven times or so. I'm not going to tie it at the beginning. I'm just going to wrap it around a bunch of times and then start to work my way up to the tip of the fabric. So it's a lot like the web, but on a much smaller scale. I want the thread to be really, really tight and I'm going to wrap it around until it seems extremely tight. And then I'm going to clip it and just tie it off with a tail that I've left at the bottom. I would say this bind is about an inch and a half to 2 " long. And I'm going to try to keep them all about that length. So here's what it looks like from the top. And I'm going to continue to do four more on each corner of the fabric. I'm just going to repeat the process. And you can do this pattern randomly like I did in the example. Visual aid, or you can measure out the center points and mark them if you want to make it like really perfect, It's up to you. This one is just eyeballed, but it will be a five-point patterns. So it will look a little less random than the visual aid that I have. For the sake of time, I sped it up. And you can see here this has five individual tentacles. This one is really time-consuming if you're doing a big piece, but it's also really stunning. The next one I'm going to demo is a spiral. The spiral is a classic when it comes to tie-dye. I think it looks really nice and sort of updated in just the indigo color. And just real quick, I want to talk about the color of this visual aid. People always ask me how long can you keep an indigo vat, meaning a pre reduced indigo vat and you can use it and after a few days. But this is an example of an older that you can see. It's a little bit faded and almost a little bit grayed out. So it's always the best to use it the same day as you mix it, but you can use it later. So now for the folding technique, I'm going to make the fabric nice and flat as possible. And if you're doing this with a T-shirt, just make it as flat as possible. And I'm going to come into the middle and pinch the center and twist it carefully. I am going to just keep twisting it and kind of make the outside pleats as even as possible and tuck them in. So it looks kind of like a cinnamon roll or a little rose. My experience with the spiral fold is that the side that is facing the table, always the flattest and the cleanest. So if you're doing a t-shirt, I would suggest putting the front of the t-shirt down and twisting from the back. And once you get it all twisted, you come in with some rubber bands. And I'm doing perpendicular over bands just to kind of keep the outsides in the cinnamon roll shape. And I'm going to continue to crisscross rubber bands. So it looks kind of like pieces of a pie. Once I have the fold kind of stabilized with the rubber bands, I go back and double up the rubber bands just to make it as tight as possible. Once it's tightened up, it's ready to go in the vet. And here is a close-up. The next pattern is the nail head pattern. This one is a little tedious, but it is really beautiful when you take the time. Here is a kimono that I got in Japan and it has a similar pattern on it. This pattern is actually finer than the nail head. And I believe that beads were used inside each little circle with thread to make this pattern. So you can make this pattern in shapes or you can just do like polka dots. Like the visual aid I have here, can get really creative with it. You can make them far apart, are really close. It's up to you for now. I'm just going to go over the basics and show you how I made this particular pattern here. So I'll add that this visual aid is a linen fabric. So the linen will take the indigo very well. As you can see. I'm going to start out with a press piece of fabric and I'm going to take out some nails. These nails are galvanized nails, which means that they won't rust. And I am going to put them on the bottom of the fabric and sort of just twist the fabric around the nail head. And then I'm gonna come in with some string here and wrap it around as tightly as I can. I like to start out with a tail that I hold with my left fingers and then I wrap the string around the nail head as tightly as I can with my right hand. And then once I've wrapped it around, probably about five times or so, sort of just clean it up, wrap it around again, and tie and nice tight knot. So every single one of those little rings is a nail. I would recommend using a nail with a little bit bigger of a nail head. That's a question that I always get for this pattern. So that's the first one and I'm just gonna keep going on this piece. As I said before, this one is a really time-consuming one. And when you dip it, you want to make sure you don't squeeze it because the nails will poke your hands. So be careful. So here's what it looks like when you have a bunch of them together. There's a little close-up for you and you can just keep going through the whole piece. Next pattern I'm going to go over is the penny pattern. This is similar to the nail pattern, but instead of using nails, I'm going to use pennies. Here's two examples of the penny pattern. One is using a thicker rubber band, the one on the bottom and then the one on the top is using a thinner rubber band and they are spaced more closely together. This is a fun and really creative pattern that you can kind of take and run with. You can do a polka dot, the one I have. Or you can make shapes or like flowers or do like half of a t-shirt with this pattern on it and then half of it blank, It's up to you. But you can really get creative. I'm gonna be using just some pennies that I have here. And these pennies are the pennies I use only for indigo dye. So to start off, I'm going to take a penny and put it on the backside of the fabric and then just twist it so that it is nice and tightly wrapped around that penny. And then I'm going to wrap a rubber band around the penny as tightly as I can. So this is a big rubber band. You can see I'm gonna go around a lot of times to get it tight. Or this one takes a little while to get together, and it also takes a while to pick apart after you're done dying it, I would recommend using a seam Ripper to take these rubber bands off. And here's an example of a thinner rubber band that would give you a little bit different result. In the visual aid at the top is a thinner rubber band and the visual aid below is a thicker rubber band. So here's a close-up of the pennies on the top and then the nails are on the bottom. Now it's time for the rapt Mandela pattern. So I'm going to start out with a pressed piece of cotton and I'm going to fold it in half hamburger style. Next I'm going to fold it in quarters. And each time I fold, I'm going to use my iron to make sure that I get a really crisp crease. Then I'm going to fold the top flap at a 45-degree angle and press that crease. I'm using steam with my iron to make sure that the creases are really set in the fabric. Then I'm going to fold the edge back and make a paper airplane type of volt. Then I'm going to make the bottom edge have the same kind of fold. And basically I just wanted to get the entire piece of fabric with these creases on it. The same size so that I can accordion fold it after I get all the creases in. So even if you aren't accordion folding it at the beginning, you can take it apart and then re accordion folded. And the accordion folding is important to make sure that the dye coverage is equal on all of the edges. I just methodically work my way through all of the quarters of the fabric to make these paper airplane types of folds. Once all of the folds have been created, I'm going to backtrack and Accordion fold them so that the coverage of dye will be even. This can be a little bit complicated, but it's not that complicated. Once you just practice and just keep in mind that you want the entire thing accordion folded on top of itself in this triangular shape. Once I get the whole thing folded and press, I'm going to take my extra strong thread and I'm going to tie it at about the halfway mark in between the tips of the triangle, I'm going to just do a nice firm square naught to make sure that it stays nice and secure. Then I'm going to start to wrap the thread around the fabric up to the point of the triangle at the top. And I'm going to then start to come back down and backtrack over my first layer of wrapping and make my way back down to the nought. I like to use extra strong thread because sometimes if you're using just regular thread, it can break. So I use a coat or an upholstery type of thread when I'm doing chivalry. And then I'm going to keep going past the knot down to the end of the triangle. And then I'm going to turn back around and come up back towards that not in the middle. Then I'm just gonna go around the whole thing again just to make sure it's really, really tight. This is going to have a lot of resist. The tighter you make the binds, the more white will be in the pattern. So this one is going to have a lot of white. Then I'm going to come back towards the middle and I'm going to tie off that tail that's from the original naught with the tail that I just cut. And I'm just going to tie it off with a nice double naught to make sure it is nice and secure. So here is a close-up of the rap mandela ready to go into the vat. 5. How to Shibori Fold: Geometric Patterns: In this section, we're going to explore geometric patterns. Before we get started, let's go over some supplies. I'm gonna be using rubber bands, tongue depressors, and some wooden blocks. These wooden blocks come in the Jack card kit. You can also use tiles or some other kind of wooden block if you want to invest, you can also get these acrylic molds. I have them and I got the set with a bunch of different shapes and I really love them. But for this class we're just going to be using the square block. You're also going to need an iron and ironing surface. The first pattern is this window pane pattern, also known as square pattern. So I'm going to start by folding my fabric hamburger style and giving it a good Press. And then I'm going to accordion folded into a long rectangle. I want to make sure that the rectangle is a little bit bigger than my wooden block, about a quarter of an inch on top and bottom of the rectangle. Once I've established the width of that rectangle, I'm going to press that fabric to be perfectly crisp and I'm gonna give it some steam. Then I'm going to fold the top part of the fabric up to start that accordion folding on the top half of the fabric. I'm gonna give it some steam to, for this one especially, you want to make sure you are doing the folds as cleanly and crisply as possible. So this one does not reach the opposite end of the rectangle, this layer, but that's okay. I just wanna make sure that all the folds line up. Then I'm going to turn it over. And I'm going to do the same thing on the other side. This accordion folding in a rectangle is the basis of all the folds for this section. And if you're folding something that is not a square, you can just imagine that you're trying to get it into a moat, the most geometric square type of shape you can, so that you can get a nice even geometric shape. So after you get it into the rectangle, you're going to make sure that it's the right size again. And then I like to fold it in half wherever the halfway mark is for the fabric, I like to mark it. You're folding something big, it can get kind of bulky. And I do recommend ironing and steaming on every single fold the bigger it gets. So next we're going to take the block and measure it. Again. I'm going to fold the rectangle onto itself so that we're folding a accordion style square shape. I want the final fold to hang off the edge of this block, about a quarter of an inch on all sides. So once I get the right measurement, I'm going to just give it some more steam and then fold the rectangle on top of itself again. And if it doesn't fit to the other edge of the fold, that's okay. I just wanted to make sure that my shape is about the same size or about a quarter of an inch bigger on each side. Then the wooden blocks and I'm gonna be using. So once I get the first slide down, I'm going to turn it over and do the exact same thing on the other side. I'm just making sure to stack it on top of itself and give it a good amount of steam in-between each fold so that it is nice and crisp. So there it is, it's all folded up and now it's ready to have the blocks put on. So I'm going to take one block and put it on top. And then I'm going to sandwich it with the other block on the other side. So there it is, ready and I'm going to put a rubber band around it as tightly as possible. You can also use clamps for this, but I wanted to make this simple and just use rubber bands. So one thing you could do is after you dip it, move the rubber bands to a different part of the fabric, and then dip it again. So that way you will not get the resist of the rubber bands when you dip in the indigo vat. That's how you do the window pane pattern. And I want to show you just really quick, a, another version of this pattern where you can just turn the blocks to be diagonal and then do your rubber band around the wooden blocks in a diagonal way. And this will give you a really pretty diamond square pattern that I'm going to dip and demo in this section. The next pattern I'm going to go over is called the star. I'm going to start with a fresh piece of fabric and I'm going to fold it in half, hamburger style. I'm going to press it and give it some steam. And then of course I'm going to accordion folded into a long rectangle just like I did with the other fold. I'm going to speed this up just to keep it moving for you guys. I don't want you guys to keep re-watching the same old accordion folding over again. If you need to go back and rewatch it from the first one, you can. Once I get my rectangle nice and ironed, I'm going to turn it the other way towards me so I can see the edge. And then I'm going to come in and fold a triangle. This fold is a lot like a flag folds because you're going to fold a right triangle. So you're going to take that first edge and fold it to the left edge first. Instead of rolling the triangle onto itself, you're going to Accordion fold the triangle so you'd take it the opposite direction to the back and you line up the edge to the side and then you just keep going, bringing it forward. So alternate going backward and forward with this triangular fold. I recommend just going slow and ironing in-between each fold until you reach the other end of the rectangle. I like to make sure that I'm stacking them on top of each other really nice and evenly and neatly. Because that's going to give you the best geometric pattern. And the thicker this gets, the more tricky it is. So it's really important to use an iron with this fold. And I've sped this folding up for you guys just to keep the video moving. But you just keep alternating, folding it forward and then backwards. And then once you get to the end, you might have kind of an odd shaped tail like this right here. You're just going to continue folding it into that triangle shape that you've established. So if it looks kind of funny at the end, don't worry about it, just keep falling it into your triangle shape. So here it is. So in the end, it should look like this. And when you take it apart, it should look like this. It's an accordion folded right triangle. Okay, so now it's time to put the rubber band on. For this pattern. I'm going to take one rubber band and put it right on that 90 degree angle in the middle of the triangle. And I'm going to wrap it as tightly as I can. The rubber band we'll scrunch down the triangle, but that's okay. And that's what it looks like before it is ready to go into that. Next up is the kaleidoscope pattern. For this one, I'm going to use the same right triangle fold that I used for the star pattern. But instead I'm going to use two rubber bands and put them on the 45-degree angles, like so. I think it's so fascinating how you can use the same fold and tie it up differently and get such different results. That's what's so fascinating about these geometric patterns. Once I get the rubber band really tight, it's ready to go into the vat. And here is a close-up of it for you. Alright, let's move on to the diamond pattern. And you guessed it, it's going to be the same right triangle fold. But I'm going to be using tongue depressors for this pattern. And I'm going to sandwich, fold in-between the two tongue depressors and then wrap the rubber bands around the end of them. And I wanna make sure it's really, really tight. This one can get a little thick. So your tongue depressors might kind of bow, which is fine. It will give you a little bit more of a organic resists. So here is a close-up of it and it's ready to go into the vat or another variation of this one, you can pull the popsicle sticks over to the 45-degree angles. And I'm going to add another set of popsicle sticks on the opposite side of the triangle. And I'm going to secure that with rubber bands on both sides as well. I want to make sure that the rubber bands are really nice and tight. And once I get them completely secured, I'm going to just make sure that the angle is in a V-shape. So I don't have a visual aid for you on this one, but I'm going to dip this one and open it for you at the end of this section. After I get this sticks into a nice V-shape, it's ready to go in the vat and there is a nice close-up of it. The next pattern is the triangle pattern. I'm going to start out with a nice, fresh square piece of fabric and give it a nice press. And then I'm going to fold it in half hamburger style again. For this one I'm going to accordion folded into a rectangle again. And I want to check to make sure it's exactly the same as my wooden block. I don't really want it to be bigger than the wooden block like I did for the square. This one, I want to be the exact same size. So after I determine that it's the right size, I'm going to just continue to accordion folded this one all the way on both sides. So once I get the first side down, I'm going to flip it over and Accordion fold the other side as well. I'm just making sure to press it really well and to use steam on my iron. So once I get it into the rectangle, I'm going to come to the end and I'm going to start to fold it into a triangle. So this is an equilateral triangle, which means all of the angles and all the sides are the same. So I'm going to start by folding a 30 degree angle. And I like to place this tongue depressor here to kind of imagine what that triangle is gonna look like. So once I get the 30 degree angle folded, I'm going to press it to get started on my equilateral triangle. The next thing I'm gonna do is to fold it under, and I want this edge to go to that edge. So I'm going to fold it under and then give it some steam and some heat. And then I'm going to go over and do the same. So I'm just going to keep going and stack the fabric carefully on top of the triangle underneath it. One can get a little bit wonky easily. So I would recommend just taking your time and pressing each fold. And once you get halfway through, you can turn it over and fold on top like I've done here. So that way you always get the steam on the freshest fold instead of just pressing the old folds. So I'm just alternating sides until I fold the entire rectangle up. When you get to the end is going to be similar to the beginning where you have a little 30 degree tail. That seems random, but if you have that, that means that you did it right. So both the front and the back of this, we'll have that. And there it is. It's ready to be sandwiched. I'm going to take my blocks and I'm going to put it in-between the two blocks. And I want to make sure that the tips are not sticking out too far on any of the edges. And I'm going to just rubber band it really nice and tight. And here's a nice close-up of it, and it's ready to go in the vat. The next pattern is called the hexagon flowers pattern. And it's really similar to the triangle pattern. I'm going to use the same equilateral fold, but instead of putting the blocks over the entire triangle, I'm just going to put them on the top of the triangle. And I'm going to let the base of the triangle kind of stick out. So once I get my blocks placed where I want them, I'm going to just go ahead and use my rubber band to secure the blocks. And for this one I'm going to do a partial dip into the vat so that the bottom will get a lot of dye coverage and the top will not, which will give it that flower appearance. So the next pattern I'm gonna do is the firework pattern. So this one also uses the equilateral triangle fold. And instead of using blocks, I'm going to just use rubber bands. So I'm going to put a rubber band on each of the corners of the triangle. And that's what's going to give you kind of like those circular bursts that you see in the visual aid. So I just want to make sure that they are even. And the triangle part sticking out above the rubber band is about the same on all of them. Here's a nice close-up of it before it goes into that. Next, Let's go to the dipping. 6. How to Mix the Pre Reduced Indigo Vat: Welcome to the mixing portion of this class. So in this portion we're going to talk about mixing up your indigo vat. And I'm going to talk a little bit about indigo, just a hole in this class I'm gonna be using pre reduced indigo. Indigo comes from the plant, indigo, and it comes from the leaves of the plant. Pre-produced indigo comes from the leaves as well as natural indigo. They both come from the leaves. Pre-produced indigo is processed in a lab so that it's easier to break it down into water. So indigo is not water-soluble and that's why it's a little tricky to work with sometimes pre-produced indigo is also called synthetic indigo, which is a little misleading because it is actually indigo pre-produced. Indigo comes in sort of like a crystal form. It kinda reminds me of like instant coffee except for its navy blue. The way indigo works is a little bit different than any other fiber reactive dyes. Indigo binds to the fibers and then oxidizes to give you the blue color. When you take things out of the indigo vat, you'll notice that there'll be lime green or green. And once you open them up and let the air hit them, that's when they're going to turn blue. So the dye is actually a pigment and it sits on top of the fabric. Because it sits on top of the fabric, It's normal for it to fade and to rub off. This is most commonly seen in denim or genes. You know how you can get those whiskers by the pockets of your genes or the ham has that rippled look and the indigo is coming off on the parts that are raised. That's because it's had more friction in the washer and the dryer or just from wear and tear and the indigo does come off. So that's a normal part of indigo dying. And it's also part of what makes it so pretty I think, is this kind of like Lauren look, another thing that can make indigo fade is direct sunlight. So just so you know, if you have your pieces in a window or by a window or indirect sunlight, they will fade faster. So I want to talk a little bit about different recipes for indigo. There are many ways to mix and indigo vat. The two ways that I like to use for pre-produced Indigo are the hydro VAT and the thigh ox fat. Both of those ingredients are going to help the indigo to break down and mix with the water. The jack card kit is a hydro vac, and that is probably my favorite bat in my experience, the dialog box fats give a very intense blue. One of the reasons is because that recipe that I use calls for more indigo. So it's also like a little bit more expensive. There is also natural indigo, which is a different kind of indigo. It's not pre reduced and you need to use different things to reduce it into the water. And it's a little bit more complicated than pre reduced indigo, pretty reduced indigo Gibbs consistent results and is easy to mix up when working with pre reduced indigo, I would highly recommend doing it outside and to wear gloves and a mask. If you can't die outside, just make sure to die in a well ventilated area. The VAT we'll give off fumes and you want to make sure you're not breathing those in. Another thing I like to do is to use one of those five-gallon buckets that come with a lid so that when I'm done with it, I can put the lid on top and keep the fumes to a minimum. I also like to keep my indigo vat outside when I'm not using it. If you're not using a kit and you want to buy the ingredients in bulk, you can. The recipe for the hydro VAT is one part indigo, two parts hydrogen sulfite, and four parts soda ash. The ratios for the thigh acts recipe are two parts pre-produced. Indigo, two parts soda ash, N1 part phi x, your privileges, indigo vat will last for about two to three days in my experience, but it's always the best. On the first day, I recommend tying up everything you want to die and getting it all ready to go before getting your back ready, then dipping everything all at one time. You can use the bat after the first day, but it will turn to a more gray blue. And my experience, that's because the indigo is starting to oxidize and kinda break down if you want to keep your back for longer. One little trick you can do is to buy the chemicals in bulk and then add a little bit more just to reactivate the die. But you have to keep it in those same ratio. So let's say you have a high Dravet and you want to get it going again, you can add like half a tablespoon of indigo, one tablespoon of hydrogen sulfite, and two tablespoons of soda ash just to kinda get it going. That's not that much of the dye and the chemicals, but that will reactivate. The same goes for the thigh ox fat. So in the next part of the video, I'm going to demonstrate how I mix up a VAT. So I am starting out with a bucket with room temperature water, it's not hot, it's not a cold. And I'm going to just carefully add my ingredients. Depending on the kit you have. Most of them are just you add all of the ingredients and Mr. Mott, to make sure that everything is dissolved. Okay. Then I'm going to stir up my back and I wanna make sure I get all the granules totally mixed up. You can often feel them in the bottom. So then I'm gonna go the opposite direction. And you can see that oxidized indigo. Okay, so now I'm going to take off these bubbles. These bubbles are called the flower and they are oxidized indigo. And I don't want them on top of that because it will just sit on top of the fabric and not actually dye the fabric. So I'm just going to get as much off as I can. 7. Bonus: What is in the Jacquard Indigo Kit: Okay, So today I'm going to unbox the Jaccard indigo tie-dye kit. This is a really great kit that I like to use for my workshops and I definitely would recommend it. You can get up to 50 or more than 15 shirts. It says it comes with everything you need to get started. It pre-produced indigo, sodium, hydrogen sulfate, soda ash gloves to wood blocks to and stick rubber bands, two sizes, Quickstart instructions, and then it lists everything you're going to need. So let's open it. Gloves. Soda ash, hydro free, reduced indigo. This is made from the indigo plan. It's just been produced in the lab. So it isn't like a crystal form. Rubber bands, some popsicle sticks, and two wooden blocks. So that's everything in the kit. It's a really great value. I definitely recommend getting it is easy to find. I'll put the link down in the description box for you guys if you're interested in getting it. And I will see you in my class. 8. How to Dip Fabric in the Indigo Vat and Reveals: Once your bat has sat for about 30 min or so, now you're ready to start to dip. Dip ink can be a little tricky and I think it takes a little practice. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about different techniques and my experience with dipping in the indigo vat. First thing you're going to want to do is to skim off all the bubbles that are on top of that fat. Those bubbles are oxidized indigo and they're really pretty, they kinda have like a iridescent purply blue shine to them. But you don't want those to get on your fabric because it's oxidized already. So it's not going to actually bind to the fabric. It's just going to sit on top of the fabric and prevent the oxydized indigo from getting into the fabric. So push them to the side and then scoop them off so that you have a smooth surface on the top of the bat. The next thing I want to talk about is wet tipping versus dry dipping. Now, this is a total matter of preference and just full disclosure most of the time, I do dry dipping just because I like it better. So I encourage you to try both ways to see how you like it. All of the visual aids that I'm showing you for today's class have been dried it. So when you're going to wet dip something, that means you get it wet with water before dipping it into the indigo vat. When dipping allows the fibers to get soaked with water and to expand within the bind that they're in. But it also will draw in the dive deeper into the folds. So that's one thing to keep in mind. Dry dipping is when you just dip your pieces in fast and dry and you tend to have more resist that way. The thing about dry dipping is sometimes the indigo, we'll get onto the fabric in an uneven way. But I personally think that looks beautiful. If you want it to be perfectly smooth, you want to make sure you submerge your fabric down into the bottom of that and you can leave it in there for up to 5 min. I've just personally had a lot of experiences where my bind is not as tight as I thought it was. And then I take it out and it's completely blue and there's no resist. So I like to dry dip and check to see how things are. And you can always dip things more times to get a darker blue or get more coverage of indigo. I just know for myself that I like to make sure I have a lot of resist and to have crisp patterns. So I like to do dry dipping, but I encourage you to try both versions and to see which one you think is best for you. Another thing to keep in mind is you can always dip a piece of your fabric if you're doing yardage as a test to see how it absorbs the Indigo. If you're using a really thin cotton sheeting, it's going to absorb the indigo differently than say, a t-shirt or a thicker jersey fabric or like a canvas. So it takes a little practice to get the feel for your fabric and to see how that indigo is going to soak into it because it's a vat, you have to dump the whole thing in. So sometimes it really sucks up all the die and sometimes it almost like repels it. Every fabric has its own sort of absorption rate and it can be different from piece to piece. So like I've said before, you can dip your pieces multiple times to get deeper blues or more coverage of indigo just makes sure that your piece has oxidized before re dipping it. In the next part of this video, I'm gonna show you how I did my pieces. Okay, so my VAT is ready to go and I'm going to just make sure all the bubbles are off the top, going to push them to the side. Alright, and now I'm going to start to dip my circular pattern. This one here is the spiderweb one. And I'm just going to dip it and I really want to make sure that died when it out. Kind of looking at it. I think it's pretty died. This fabric is very thin. So depending on what you're dying like, you might want to dip it a few times. You can even let them sit for a few hours and then dip it one more time to get a darker blue. Okay, this is our Mandela and I'm going to just dip it really fast. Can I see inside? Not really. All right. There's a little bit of light blue in there, so that's good. Alright, I'm going to let this sit. And next I'm gonna do my pennies and my nail demo. So going to Dunkin, not mean careful when ice freezes because males. So there you have it. And I'm going to let these sit with the others before I opened them for a little while. Okay, So now it's time to open up our circular patterns. So I'm just going to cut them apart. There we go. Okay. Can see the resistance five, so let's open it up. Oh wow. That's nice. It's very spider webby. Cool. This green is going to oxidize once it is exposed to the oxygen. And I'm gonna like hanging on the drying rack for a few minutes and let it sit. So next I'm going to do these pennies. So I remember doing two kinds of rubber bands, one that's thick and one or one that's thin and then one that's thick. So let's start with the thin ones. Okay. I got some better scissors, I think. Yeah, that's better. All right. Almost done. Okay. Very cool. So you can see I don't know what that's from this weird, but these are the, the big penny, the big rubber bands around the pennies, and then these are the thin rubber bands around the penny. Now it's time to cut apart the nails. So you can see how they're starting to show. Okay, there are the nail and there are the pennies. So you can see the difference in size and the different in contrast. The nails are a lot more subtle with the string. Okay, So my indigo vat is ready to dip and I'm going to start with the nail burrito. So I'm going to just take it and submerge it and bring it out. I don't want it to be too long. And then what I'm gonna do is check inside. If I can see inside. Can't see inside very well because it's really tight. But I am going to just squeeze it out. And just for good measure, I'm going to just stick the sides. And again, just really briefly. Because that's going to give you that line look. I really want to make sure these parts are really died. Then the center, I don't care if it's a side effect. It's better if it's a little bit less died. Alright, so that one's good. I'm going to set it aside. Next, I'm gonna do my undulating Chevron. I'm gonna go really fast on this one because this is then fabric and I don't want it to get too saturated. So here we go. Squeeze it out. Alright, so let's check inside here. Yeah, This got nice and died. And as you can see, it's kind of a green color. That's normal. It will oxidize to blue. It's going to turn blue once oxygen headset. These are so tight, I can't really move them, so I'm just going to let them be squeezed out the ends of it. Okay? And now I'm going to put this to the side. Okay, Next, I'm going to do this diamond one with the paint sticks and I'm really excited for this one. So I've dipped a few things, so there's some bubbles here and I'm going to push them to the side and lift them out. So what I'm gonna do for this one, so this is too big to go into the bat like that. So I'm going to tip my bat very carefully. Don't want to spill. And I'm just going to stick this in like that and then turn it and do it again. She probably did the other side one more time just because I did it twice on this side. I'm just going to squeeze it out. Let's see. Can I see inside? It? Can't see inside. It's very, very tight. But I can see that it's all blue on the sides here. So that's good. Okay. So I'm going to let this sit for a few minutes before I open them up. Okay, wow. Nice contrast, MR plus one. Alright, so all the nails are falling. Be careful here. Alright, time to unfold it. All right, so that's the top part that always gets more blue. And then here's the bottom part, which looks awesome. Wow, it's like organic strikes. Really cool. And the green is going to turn blue, which will just take a few minutes. Okay, so next, I'm going to open up this undulating chevron pattern. And I'm gonna be really careful and just chloride, cool. Alright, let's see. Oh, wow. That's nice. So again, the green is going to oxidize. And I think it looks really nice. Just wait a few minutes for it to turn blue and put it on the drying rack here. B2c, this one. There's some nice contrast on both sides. So that is great. Alright, let's open it up. See what it looks like. Oh, beautiful. All right. So that's one-quarter and now I'm going to open it to corners, one-half. And here's the whole thing. Oh, wow. Uniform. So that's like a nice diamond pattern. Going, it's going to oxidize once the air hits it. So I'm going to put it over here to dry. All right, So here we go. Put it in, starting to bubble. All right, let's see. All right, so see it's sort of resisting the dye in there. So let's put it one more time. I kind of stick your hands in and massage it. Really thick like that. Alright. So there's some white in there, but not that much. So I'm going to let this one said, I think that's good for that one. Next I have this diagonal square one. So I'm going to submerge it. And with these each Jimmy ones, you can really let them kinda steep in there because it's so tight that one just chill in there. So I always like to check that looks better. Squeeze it in. It's still not. The side is nice and blue. All right. Let's put this in just you can just dip one side into one more time. Okay, that's better. So let's flip this one, sit on the side here. And then now I have my equilateral triangle bound up with the wooden blocks here, and I'm going to put it down. I'm going to really submerges one. Since this one has very little exposed, it's probably gonna be really white. So I want to make sure it's really down there for awhile. Okay. Oh, yeah, that's good. You can see in That's nice. Gotten this in blue. Alright, so let's get to sit for a couple of minutes before I open it. Cool. Oh cool. Wow. Beautiful. I love it. That is really cool. Okay, so these green pieces you can see in there they're going to turn blue once it sits out in the oxygen for awhile. So I'm gonna put this on the drying rack. Oh, very nice. I like that. It's very like unexpected. It kinda looks like that. A basket weave. Cool. Alright, I'm gonna put this on the drying rack to oh wow. That turned out really pretty. 9. Indigo Dipping Techniques- Dry Dip vs Wet Dip: In this video, I'm going to show you the difference between dry versus wet dipping. So for this experiment, I folded two pieces of fabric in the exact same way. I'm going to dip one wet and dry. Alright, so I just taught a workshop and I have a fresh veg going. I'm going to dip my one piece in the water. Then I'm going to do one as a dried-up. So I'm going to do one wipe dip in one, drive them. So first I'm going to take the first piece and put it into the water to get saturated. I want it to get completely saturated. And then I'm going to take my piece that I'm going to do with the dried-up paint and just submerge it completely in the indigo vat. I'm going to let it sit for a few seconds and take it out to check it. And then I'm going to dip it one more time. After it's been submerged for about 30 s, I'm going to take it out and wring it out. Check to see how the resist looks. I just want to make sure it's not completely blue sometimes that does happen. And now I'm gonna put in my wet for it first dunk. I've sped this process up for the sake of time on the video, but I just take my time and dip each piece and then check it. You can always read dip something. The more dips you do, the darker the blue is going to be. I just like to check to make sure that there is enough white on the piece. I don't want it to be completely blue. I've had that happened to me before. So you can always dip things again, but you can unzip them. That's what I always say. I'm just going back-and-forth and dipping each piece over and over again to make sure I get a nice dark blue color. Now a lot of people like to dip their Indigo for a really long time. But for me, I like to just kinda do shorter dips and do more of them to just make sure that the white is still there. So now they've been completely dipped. I'm going to let them oxidize and then I'm going to open that. Okay, so now let's open up our pieces. Okay. That's the dry dip right there. And here is the wet dip. So they're similar but different. Let's see here. This is the other side. Of course I have to wash them now. And I'm going to rinse them and wash them with hot and then dry them on hot. Okay, Here they are. They're all washed and dried. This one here is the wet dip, and you can see there is a woven striping this fabric which kind of makes the dye kind of draw up until the stripes, which is kinda cool. This one is the dry dip, which has a lot more resist and crisper lines. So there you have it side-by-side, two techniques, and you can choose whichever one you prefer. 10. How to Wash your Indigo Tie Dye: So now that we've dipped our pieces and they've oxidized, Let's talk about laundry instructions. Once you've opened up your pieces and you've seen the results, the next step is to rent your pieces with cold water, tried to hit all of the excess indigo out of your pieces? I have a slop sink that I use so I don't ever have to worry about cleaning up. But if you're doing it in your bathtub or your kitchen sink or something like that. You can use a magic eraser to get rid of any indigo stains that might occur. Usually with porcelain, it doesn't really stain porcelain that has like a finish on it. But if you have any problems getting indigo anywhere in your house or on any of your furniture or anything like that. You can use a magic eraser and a little elbow grease to get it off once you've gotten it rinsed. I like to put it into the washer on hot with, you guessed it. Center paul. Center paul is also known as dire as detergent. And the reason it is so great is because it helps prevent the excess dye that comes out in the wash from redesign the parts of your fabric that have the resist. So it'll keep the whites white and the blues blue. I'm going to put a list for center Paul and all the ingredients and different things I like to use for indigo dying in the description for you guys. So if you wanna go and buy those things, you can go check them out. After I've watched everything, I like to try it on hot. And if you want to be careful, I'd recommend washing everything twice just to make sure all the excess indigo is out. For the next couple of washes after you wear or use your indigo piece, I'd recommend washing it with light colors. And just be really careful. It's kinda like getting a pair of really dark wash denim from the store. The first couple of washes, you want to make sure that it's not staining other things in the Washington. 11. Skillshare class project: Now that my pieces have been washed and dried, it's time to show you the results. For the class project. I encourage you to pick your favorite three linear designs, favorite three circular designs, and favorite three geometric patterns and post them in the class discussion. I would love to see your results and let me know if you have any questions. 12. Indigo Tie Dye Shibori- Complete Guide Exit: That concludes today's indigo class. Thank you guys so much for joining me. Be sure to go and check out my YouTube channel, onyx art studios and my Instagram account, onyx art studios. I'll put those down in the description for you guys. I would love to see what you guys create and if you have any questions, be sure to e-mail me. Remember everyone is creative and textile dyne is a great way to get in touch with your innate creativity. Good luck, and have fun. I'll see you guys next time. Bye.