Turning indigo plants into pigment
I attended the Indigo Extraction Process—from leaf to pigment workshop with Judi Pettite at Fibershed this weekend. The process takes several days so we did a "cooking show" format: each step was set up in advance so we could fast forward through the process.
First, we harvested indigo leaves. They remind me of basil.
The leaves are added to a bin of water and weighted down so they can passively ferment. After a few days, the water turns an electric teal color. It can also have a bronzy-purple sheen, like an indigo vat.
Once the leaves have sufficiently fermented, they are removed, and you aerate the liquid while adding calx. Over time, the liquid starts to turn that dark, familiar, indigo blue.
Once the pigment settles, you pour off the clear water at the top. So much work, so many leaves, so little pigment!
The final steps are to filter the water out, rinse the pigment to remove the calx, let it dry, then ground it into powder.
