Stony Creek Colors is a farmer and manufacturer of natural, plant-derived indigo, serving fashion brands as well as an artisan community of natural dyers. We partner with leading denim mills and dyehouses to bring consistent and scalable natural colors from traceable farmers-grown supply chains into mainstream fashion industry use.
This series of Indigo how-to Videos are for artisans and hobbyists interested in learning natural dyeing with indigo or learning a new vat method. There are several ways to dye with indigo, including fermentation vat, chemically reduced vats, iron vat and reducing sugar vats. It is quite detailed so if you are not actually interested in learning indigo dyeing this is not the video for you!
The “hydro vat” is a chemically reduced vat and can be a great vat for beginners to help introduce themselves to natural dyeing. This vat uses sodium dithionite or RIT Color remover as a reducing agent for the indigo and ingredients can all be found in the Stony Creek Colors hydro vat dye kit.
Products used in the video:
Stony Creek Colors Natural indigo powder 25% (45 grams used in video).
Soda ash or Sodium carbonate (10 grams ) less soda ash when using silk or wool
Rit color remover ¾ of the box - 45 or 50 grams
Ph strips are included in the SCC natural indigo kit. Target a pH of 10 or 11 for cotton or cellulose fibers, or 8 or 9 for wool dyeing.
Buy it here: (dye.farm/products/indigo-dye-kit?variant=12368027582545)
Supplies:
A well ventilated environment (outside works best)
Dust mask or respirator
Goggles
Gloves
Scale
A container with lid for making stock solution (ideally 2 Liter minimum size, we use a 1 quart mason jar in video)
A stirring spoon or utensil
5 gallon bucket for vat
5 gallon bucket for rinsing
Thermometer
A way to heat water or a hot water source
Need a refresher on a part of the video? Use the time index below.
0:35 When to Use a Hydro Indigo Vat
0:55 Creating a Stock Solution
9:02 Creating your Vat
19:29 How to Begin Your Dyeing
26:27 Dyeing Protein Fibers
30:47 Achieving Your Desired Shade
33:15 Final Colors
Thanks to Kelsie Doty and Engage Cornell for filming this video.
Thanks to Tommy and the Ohs for providing intro and outro music “On yer own”