HOW TO EXTRACT INDIGO PIGMENT FROM FRESH LEAF - FAILED ATTEMPT | ORGANIC COLOR | BLUE | FERMENTATION

[@andrealouchene6916]

Hi Margaret. I have also just done this for the first time. I understand that it is actually better to protect the indigo from sunlight during fermentation, though warmth is of help. Mine took a week before it turne mermaid blue and the stench was awful. All the same, I did get some good pigment. My indigo was fresh from the garden and after removing it from the water, I then added the hydrated lime or calx as you call it before mixing air into. This took about 15 mins. First the froth turned blue, then more white again. I can imagine that your liquid did not get enough oxygen with the lid closed and it definitely wasn't long enough. I could not actually see it floculating in my bucket and the liquid remained dark, but after pouring some of this off, there was blue pigment at the bottom, which I poured through coffee filters. Well, I definitely hope your second lot works for you. How annoying that you couldn't finish it yourself.

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Hi Andrea! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with pigment extraction 💙 There are so many factors that can make a difference, and as I understand it, can change on each attempt. I believe your method of slaked lime first and aeration second is most common, but I learned to do it the other way at Indigofest because you often need less slaked lime than recipes call for. Love all the variations because it gives lots of room to experiment 😊 I was also getting ready to leave for 2 months, so I wonder now if I didn't let it settle enough and maybe there was pigment hiding in the bottom - who knows! I will see what my mermaid water looks like when I get back to my studio and maybe try again with some of your tips too. So happy you got some of that blue on your first try!

[@ΙώΑμαδρυάς]

I look forward to seeing the result. 😍 Have fun in everything you do 🥰

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Thank you 💙 Tough to make the call from so far away, but we'll see when I'm back in my home studio in November. Otherwise, will try again next year 😉

[@odilonlorenzogonzalez3317]

Hi there, I’ve made it before and also failed, then I did fermented the leaves just 24 hours and that’s the way it works better, by the way, I used another kind of indigo leaves.

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Hi@@odilonlorenzogonzalez3317 ! Thanks for sharing this tip 💙 I do think it was over-fermented, so will be fun to try it again with my mermaid water at my studio when I'm back in November. Trial and error is how we learn 😊

[@mikekearsley2407]

Great videos. I am dying to try some of your techniques. Thanks from Woodinville.

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Thank you and welcome to Color Quest, neighbor! Hope you will get into the dye studio soon and have some amazing fun 🌼

[@malathiepahathkumbura1298]

Wow! Thanks Margaret. Why did you put some bottles in the jar?

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

You need to push the leaves below the surface of the water, so instead of using stalks like I did the first time, I decided to use the glass jars. You can use rocks or other heavy things to push them down and many will use a screen over the top to keep them submerged 😊

[@malathiepahathkumbura1298]

@@MargaretByrdColorQuestThank you.🙏

[@botanicaltreasures2408]

Thanks so much for sharing--so interesting! Disappointing yet valuable! Some years ago I tried to extract indigo from Persicaria longiseta Knotweed rather than Persicaria tinctoria Japanese Indigo. I figured that the weed in my yard was in the same plant genus as Japanese indigo and it might contain smaller amounts of indigo that I could use. At the time, I knew practically nothing about the indigo process except that I needed to add a substance to sequester the oxygen. I had no idea about the time involved so I think I only gave it 24 hours. My failed attempt is at time 2:25 in the following video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJ3TZIRrlMmJh8U However, I ended up with a colorfast yellow.

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Very valuable to have these kind of failed attempts - it's how we learn 😊 Cool that you tried it with your knotweed and sounds like maybe you got some indirubin yellow? Or perhaps, it just gave you its natural yellow 💛 I will pop over to your video to see your results. Thanks for sharing 🌼

[@botanicaltreasures2408]

@@MargaretByrdColorQuest That would be neat if it were a shade of indirubin. All I know is after 4 years that yarn in my dresser scarf is still yellow.

[@MargaretByrdColorQuest]

Amazing natural colors 💛💛💛@@botanicaltreasures2408