Join Artist Berkley Heath for an afternoon of indigo dyeing! She will be demonstrating dyeing in her indigo vat and participants will be able to dye small samples of cotton fabric, and have the opportunity to bring an item from home to dye (note that this material needs to be clean and natural fiber--cotton, linen, wool, etc). Bring an old cotton T-shirt and dye it blue with natural indigo!
Indigo is a dye found in many different species of plants that grow all over the world. Indigo is the only traditional true blue dye, and humans have been using it to dye fiber and cloth various shades of blue for thousands of years (the oldest indigo-dyed fragment is over 6,000 years old and found in Peru). Japanese indigo (Persicaria tinctoria) is the species best-suited to growing in our climate in New England, and Berkley grows hundreds of indigo plants each year right here in Claremont. Come learn more about this fascinating natural color!