Natural Indigo Dyeing Iron Vat How To Video

The Iron vats is a no frills approach to indigo dyeing. This vat does well with cellouses fabrics like cotton, linen and bamboo. When picking out your fabric to dye keep in mind if a shirt has ribbing or two types of fabrics it may pick up a slightly different color.
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 dye houses 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 “iron vat” is an indigo vat that works for several months with maintenance, works at room temperature, and can achieve deep blues. Supplies for the indigo and ingredients can all be found in the Stony Creek Colors iron vat dye kit.
Products used in the video:
Stony Creek Colors Natural indigo powder 25% (45 grams used in video)
Calcium hydroxide (commonly known as hydrated lime)
Iron sulfide hydehydrate : ferrous sulfate
Buy the entire kit here: (dye.farm/produ...)
Other great kits include Graham Keegans Shibori kit! (link:www.grahamkeeg...)
Materials:
Mask or ventilator mask
Safety goggles
Gloves
5 gallon bucket for vat
5 gallon bucket for rinsing
Hot water
Stirring utensil
Scale
Vessels for stock solution and weighing products (1 quart ball jars used in video)
Rocks or marbles for mixing up indigo powder into paste(optional)
Eye dropper or pipette (optional )
Scoured fabric/garments/material that has been wetted out (soaked and wrung out)
Need a refresher on a part of the video? Use the time index below.
0:45 Safety Equipment
1:03 Vat Materials
3:28 Creating Your Stock Solution
13:44 Preparing the Vat Solution
17:29 Creating Your Vat
20:22 Testing the Vat for Dyeing
27:38 How To Dip For Your Preferred Color
31:50 How To Maintain Your Vat
34:21 Troubleshooting Tips
40:12 Dyeing Results and Final Notes
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”

[@niroppamassawant8013]

Thankyou for posting the video ! Had a query... for 45 gms of indigo how many grams of ferrous sulphate and cslcium hydroxide did you use ? What is tge ratio of indigo: fesulphate: calcium hydroxide

[@sarahbellos1145]

f you use our dyes there is a recipe on our website. Even if you dont use Stony Creek Colors products you can base your ratios off the strength of your indigo. Thanks!

[@melissagrady1723]

If it is 25% indigo, what makes up the rest of the powder?

[@reeractivist7561]

Saying stuff like 'a little bit less' is of no use and confusing. WHAT CONSTITUTES TOO MUCH WATER???????????????????

[@southridgeshire8834]

Thank you for the this video! I used the pdf from your website, and it instructed me to use all the iron and calx in the recipe in the stock solution, and only to put water in the larger bucket. This video seems to show you using smaller portions of the iron and calx in the stock solution, and then adding the remainder to the big bucket *before* adding the stock solution. Which of these methods do you recommend as best practice?

[@reeractivist7561]

It would have been better to NOT work against the dark background with the dark indigo. And for some new to this process a bit more guidance relative to the amounts (water added to indigo) would be helpful.

[@petrodeklerk5939]

Hello, I need some advice, please.I am trying my hand at dyeing with Indigo and used the banana vat method. My projects came out pretty -I made kitchen towels with my first attempt but after a week on my shelf, my towels were showing a yellow line on the fold of the fabric. It is not lying in the sun, only on an open shelf with good daylight. Can someone explain why this is happening?

[@deannak1841]

curios about the measurements- i know you said them when mixing the stock, but then u added more for the vat and did not give weight amounts.

[@amiensarabellis8391]

I love the birds singing in the background!!!

[@MaedayNva]

So helpful thank you. You helped get me through the hump/discouragement of an inactive vat

[@rylandlarry4853]

i dont mean to be so offtopic but does any of you know of a tool to get back into an Instagram account? I stupidly lost the login password. I appreciate any tips you can offer me

[@torinhuxley7535]

@Ryland Larry instablaster =)

[@rylandlarry4853]

@Torin Huxley i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and Im waiting for the hacking stuff atm. I see it takes quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.

[@rylandlarry4853]

@Torin Huxley It worked and I actually got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thank you so much you saved my ass :D

[@torinhuxley7535]

@Ryland Larry glad I could help :D

[@janellelucido4444]

Hi I didn’t catch the ratios for the three ingredients. Thanks so much for your detailed videos!!!

[@StonyCreekColors]

Check our website stonycreekcolors.com for detailed instructions on each of the currently available vat types. Or join our Kickstarter to be one of the first to access IndiGold when that starter stock vat is released!

[@trishvanhuesen9819]

when at the end of the day you add boiling water, could you use the water from the rinsing pot instead of fresh water?

[@StonyCreekColors]

Definitely

[@ganavelt4222]

Hello

[@tinaharris1331]

What if you add the calx paste before the iron to the stock salution?

[@StonyCreekColors]

This sound work, may even be easier?

[@leoniecochrane3108]

Thank you, Ive watched your videos over and over. because I've had a lot of failures. Would you tell me the exact measurements of the Lime and the iron as the last one if done i think ive used too much iron. leonie

[@sarahbellos1145]

Leonie, If you use our dyes there is a recipe on our website. Even if you dont use Stony Creek Colors products you can base your ratios off the strength of your indigo. Thanks!