Indigo

Indigo is a member of the pea family - a legume. Indigo tinctora is used to make the beautiful indigo dye.
I'm not sure which variety of the over 300 varieties of Indigo I happen to have, but it has grown into a beautiful shrub. You would think that the indigo dye would come from the beautiful blue flowers; however, it comes from the green leaves. The leaves are fermented in vats to produce the dye. The original color that results on fabric or yarn from the indigo dye is a yellow green color, but when left to dry in the air it turns the beautiful color of indigo.

You tube has a couple a film on the process as it occurs in India which I found rather interesting. I always wanted to try dying some cloth with natural dyes, but I don't think I'm up to this indigo color!

Natural Indigo Extraction


“It comes down to the fact that you supply the blue, and they supply the other colors and mix them with your blue, and maybe there's some blue left in the painting and maybe there isn't. Maybe there wasn't supposed to be any there in the first place. So have some fun and make a good blue and walk away.”
--- Viggo Mortensen (American Actor, Photographer, Artist and Writer, b.1958)