• Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
facebook twitter instagram
Let's Just Travel
  • Home
  • About Us
  • FAQs
  • Contact Us
  • The Zoe Report
  • Haley’s Corner
Home  >  Chiang Mai • Thailand  >  Thai Dye
Chiang MaiThailand

Thai Dye

Allison Sherman Posted onSeptember 4, 2017October 12, 2017 4 Comments 2568 Views

I feel like one of my roles in this family is to scour Facebook like it’s my full-time job. I look for local classes, workshops, opportunities, excursions… basically anything that can add to our well-rounded education. Sometimes I fall into a rabbit hole reading about the worst mistaken text someone ever sent or watching a slideshow of funny rabbit pictures. #sidebenefits

The latest class I discovered was through a local studio, teaching people how to dye fabric using indigo. Indigo is a plant native to the tropics and has been used for centuries to dye clothing. The original “blue” in “blue jeans” was indigo, although our workshop leader tells us that most dyes are synthetic now. But since indigo is native to Thailand and the surrounding area, we were able to attend a 3- day workshop where we started from the very beginning – harvesting the plant – and over the course of the class we dyed our own fabric! It was a really interesting class. I’m going to tell you about it in pictures…

Day 1: We got up early to beat the heat and were taken out to some fields outside of Chiang Mai where the indigo was growing. It’s a fairly hearty plant, resistant to most diseases and pests, as long as you protect it when it’s first growing. Evidently, snails like the young plant but leave the mature plant alone.

 

We actually had to work! This is Zoe harvesting the indigo. I was very uncertain about doing the cutting of the plant because they only harvest a few times a year and I did not want to screw it up. We were supervised, for the most part. I felt like our lack of green thumb was pretty obvious though.

 

We went back to Chiang Mai to the studio and now we had to get rid of the big stems and prepare the leaves for soaking, which is when the color is removed. At this point, we have seen no blue colors at all, only green leaves. #whoknew

 

This was not a complicated process but the leaves make your skin itchy. We had to wrap it into bundles that would soak in the water. The bundles were important because they would be heavier than just the leaves so everything would stay submerged in water. The blue color is extracted from the leaves.

 

Preparing to soak the leaves. A rare sight of teamwork among sisters. And dirt on Haley.

 

We filled up the large garbage bins with the indigo leaf bundles and then filled it with water to soak overnight. You could also leave them for weeks, but the minimum is overnight. The warmer the better. Each tub held about 12-15 kilos of plant. Our harvest that morning netted 80 kilos of plant, which the studio owner said was very good.

 

We had to lay large rocks on top of the leaf bundles to keep them from floating above the water. They needed to be completely submerged. This was the bin that Zoe, Haley and I worked on.

 

Day 2: preparing our fabric for dying. This is where we got to choose different techniques to create patterns. Zoe is wrapping her fabric around some PVC pipe to create her pattern. It’s pretty much like tie dye: you restrict the dye from getting to some parts of your fabric and those parts stay white.

 

Break time, she found a cat. Of course.

 

Haley is stitching her fabric to create her pattern. Be proud, Nanna! You are the one who taught her to sew!

 

We also have to tend to the leaves on day 2. After taking out the leaf bundles, which will be composted, we added lime. Then we had to do this scoop-and-pour technique for 30 straight minutes. This allows for the oxidation of our water. The girls and I took turns. This process hurts your back! Note the color is greenish here.

 

This is later in the 30-minute process. Notice how much darker the liquid is now. We were taught that you had to listen to the bubbles to know when the oxidation was complete. I tried to point out to the girls how listening is so important but they weren’t listening.

 

While the girls were pouring I was at the snack table. This is sticky rice and sweet potato cooked in bamboo leaves. They had bean and banana with rice too. Oh wow it was delicious. And I’m not just saying that because I was cheating on my potato diet.

 

Day 3: Now it was time to remove the last of the leaves and residue by straining the water mixture through this fabric. The remainder is what is used to make the dye vat. Once you have the dye paste you can keep it for several years to use for dying. Zoe and a different cat are supervising.

 

The studio owner is teaching us how to make the vat. The paste is mixed with ash water, fruit sugars or rice whiskey, and left to ferment. After a few days of stirring and adding sugars, it’s ready to dye with. We used a previously-made vat, so we didn’t have to wait several days.

 

Also on day 3, Haley is finishing up the fabric stitching. Look closely and you’ll see she’s multi-tasking: petting a cat AND working on her stitching.

 

Almost ready for dying! Wetting the fabric.

 

You submerge your fabric at least 3 times in the dye vat. You leave it in for about a minute each time. In between dunks you have to air it out for a few minutes. During which time you have to itch your eye so you take a selfie too.

 

Zoe is rinsing her fabric after her 3 dunks.

 

I had 4 different fabric pieces I was doing so I was taking a while to get all the way through the process.

 

The fabric is done and drying! Zoe loved the smell of the indigo, but Haley said it’s going to haunt her dreams forever.

 

Our finished work! Left to right: my 4 napkins, Zoe’s shawl, Haley’s shawl.

 

This is another guy taking the workshop. This is not his first rodeo. He created that design using nothing but rubber bands, tape and stitching. #showoff

 

More snacking. Others. Not me. I was on the potato diet. #wink
Previous Article Waterfall Hopping
Next Article Getting Pretty in Kuala Lumpur

Related Posts

  • Reporting From Home Base

    February 19, 2020
  • Worldschooling Happy and Crappy

    December 11, 2019
  • A Weekend At Coco’s

    December 3, 2019
  • Worldschooling Game Changers

    November 27, 2019
  • Halloween and Day of the Dead in Mexico

    November 10, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 2

    October 13, 2019
  • Stories from PdC, Part 1

    September 29, 2019
  • Life in PdC

    August 25, 2019
  • Mexico 2.0

    August 7, 2019
  • Random Tours in Europe

    August 2, 2019

4 Comments

  1. Linda McMahill
    September 4, 2017 at 4:59 pm

    That was really interesting! I had no idea of where Indigo came from. Thanks for sharing!

    • Allison Sherman
      September 5, 2017 at 2:16 am

      Linda, me too! When I saw the workshop I had to google it and figure out what it was about. Now that we know, we see it everywhere. 🙂

  2. Taliu
    October 11, 2017 at 7:23 pm

    Hi ya, am interested in learning the workshop.could you tell me the name of the studio you attended please.
    Taliu Aloua
    [email protected]
    Malo aupito

    • Allison Sherman
      October 12, 2017 at 1:32 am

      Here is the studio. I notice their website is not working right now so here is their facebook page. Thanks for asking, I hope you do it. https://www.facebook.com/studionaenna/

Social Media

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2
facebook twitter

Categories

  • Amsterdam4
  • Barcelona2
  • Belgium1
  • Bocas6
  • Boquete16
  • Cambodia3
  • Cape Town6
  • Cenote13
  • Chiang Mai12
  • Christmas7
  • Colombia42
  • Day Trips8
  • Dominican Republic10
  • Dubai3
  • Education70
  • FAQs13
  • Field Trips15
  • Florence1
  • Food5
  • France3
  • Germany2
  • Granada2
  • Guatemala4
  • Haley's Corner29
  • Health6
  • Iceland3
  • Italy6
  • Johannesburg8
  • Language8
  • London2
  • Malaysia5
  • Medellin41
  • Merida3
  • Mexico78
  • Mexico City3
  • Milan1
  • Money3
  • Naples3
  • Netherlands9
  • Packing5
  • Panama153
  • Panama City5
  • Pedasi98
  • Playa del Carmen6
  • Portugal5
  • Puebla3
  • Read First1
  • Recap3
  • Rome3
  • South Africa21
  • Spain19
  • Switzerland1
  • Thailand17
  • The Zoe Report10
  • USA2
  • Venice1
  • What's Next9
  • Zimbabwe2

Archives

  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
Order Dept, LLC © Copyright 2015