Fall 2011

Lichens:
Fungi + Algae =
Color!

In This Issue
FEATURES

Designing with a Color Wheel

Deb Menz selects and cards colors
PDF download: Tetrad Scarves

Sermons
in Stone

Color My World
A report from ISEND 2011
Overdyeing One, Two, Three
Sara Lamb transforms textiles
from unloved to lovely
The Blue World
Exploring indigo around the
world
Artisan Hues in Fiber and Fabric.

Indigo
in China

Saxon Blue

Growing Green, Growing Blue

Rowland Ricketts brings a
Japanese art to the Midwest
Two Ways to Create an
Indigo Vat
Dagmar Klos offers directions for
natural and chemical processes
PDF download: Natural
Fermentation Vat
PDF Download: Chemical
Reduction Vat

+
+

Saxon Blue
Linda Ligon explores an
unexpected shade of indigo

Two Ways to Create

an Indigo Vat

Indigo in China
Not far from high-tech Shanghai,
indigo is used in traditional
textiles
In the Kitchen
Cathy Bullington coaxes color
from everyday edibles
PDF download: Dye Recipes

Lichens: Fungi + Algae = Color!

Glenna Dean shows that color
grows on trees

Sponsored by

Overdyeing
One, Two,
Three

Sermons in Stone
Linda Ligon gets dye from stone
soup
DEPARTMENTS
Editors Corner

In the Kitchen

Try This: Dye Samples

Further Exploration
Sources & Suppliers
In Closing . . . Indigo

Designing with a
by Deb Menz

f you havent taken a

class in color theory, a
color wheel can look like
a pretty but intimidating
tool. Have you ever
wondered how to use a
color wheel to choose
colors for a project? There
are many ways that a color
wheel can help answer
your color questions.
ALL PHOTOS BY JOE COCA. ALL
GRAPHICS FROM COLOR WORKS.

BLUE
VIOLET

BLUE
1

12

VIOLET

BLUE
GREEN
2

3 GREEN

11

RED
10
VIOLET

RED

8
RED
ORANGE

7
ORANGE

Show Complementary Hue

YELLOW
GREEN

YELLOW

6
YELLOW
ORANGE

Show Tetrad

Close
Overlay

Lets start with choosing a color

harmony. A color harmony is a
specific relationship of hue families.
For example, one type of harmony is
complementarytwo hue families
that lie opposite one another on the
color wheel. (For information about
many different harmonies, see my
book Color Works.)
The harmony used in the two
scarves shown on the next page
is a tetrad. A tetrad uses two pairs
of complementary hue families
together. Imagine superimposing a
rectangle on top of a color wheel; the
corners of the rectangle would fall
on the hue families of the tetrad. The
hue families used for this project are
blue-violet and yellow-orange with
blue-green and red-orange.

Hue family
Also known as a color family, a
hue family describes a wedge
in the color wheel. When you
describe a color, its
hue is probably
the first thing
you think
of; yellow,
green, red,
or any
color of the
rainbow is
a hue.

A conference in France
gathered people from
around the globe to marvel
at the past, present, and
future of natural dyes.

Color My World:
A Tour of ISEND 2011

by Elaine Lipson

n April 2011, more than 500

people from 56 countries
converged in La Rochelle, a
resort town on the Atlantic
coast of France, for the third
International Symposium
and Exhibition on Natural
Dyes and Colorants (ISEND).
The attendee roster was as
colorful as the conference
theme, including artists,
craftspeople, teachers,
conservators, designers,
botanists, entomologists,
anthropologists, sociologists,
food scientists, writers,
filmmakers, entrepreneurs,
and environmentalists. Even
in person, it was impossible
to experience everything that
ISEND offered.

PHOTOS BY ELAINE LIPSON.

ABOVE: La Rochelle, France
provided a beautiful backdrop.
LEFT: The conference poster.

Medieval towers overlook the

Atlantic Ocean.

Plants from
a dye garden
in Rochefort,
France.

With a group of attendees so

diverse and a topic so global
in scope, it was clear from the
start that this would not be
your average textile conference.
Dyeing demonstrations, scientific
poster presentations, lively panel
discussions, films, fashions, artwork,
a marketplace full of temptations,
even an off-site visit to a nineteenth-

The presenters stage was decorated with lengths of naturally dyed fabric.

century naval medical museum

full of historic plant (and human!)
specimensthe breadth of the
program was remarkable. Though
the primary focus was on dyes for
textiles and fiber, the program also
included topics on natural colorants
for cosmetics and foods.
The participants, many with a long
history of advocating for natural
dyes and traditional knowledge
in a world that has seen them as

anachronistic, displayed profound

passion for natural dyeing. And the
banquet of possibilities for subtle,
beautiful, and authentic color from
plants, insects, earth, and shellfish
was tantalizing.

A Wealth of Knowledge
A rich program of talks and
presentations took place on an
auditorium stage framed with
spectacular lengths of naturally

The Blue
World

he immediately recognizable blue of indigo owes its color to a single

pigment molecule known as indigotin. Colorless compounds in the
leaves of many unrelated plants release the vividly blue indigotin through
extraction, fermentation, and exposure to air. While most indigo is now
produced synthetically, centuries of textile dyers relied on local plants to
provide the treasured blue dye, and some continue to cultivate indigobearing plants today.

by Leslie Ordal

3
4

8
2

Close all

Click on a
location to
find more
about each
type of indigo
plant.

Growing Green and Blue

by Rowland Ricketts

fell in love
with indigo
textiles while
living in Japan,
where this unique
dyethe only
natural blue dye
was historically
used to color
everything
from humble
diapers and
undergarments
to ornate bedding
covers and
ceremonial robes.

ALL PHOTOS BY ROWLAND

RICKETTS UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
As freshly cut indigo
plants (top) are dried
over two days, the
indigo in the leaves
slowly oxidizes and
turns from green to
blue like the plants in
the foreground.

I had moved to Japan after

graduating from college, and like
most recent graduates I had no idea
what I wanted to do with my life.
After years of dabbling in wood
block printing and photography, I
met some artists who were working
with natural dyes. They in turn
opened my eyes to the tradition
of indigo in Japan, and I soon
realized that all of my interests
in gardening, in working with my
hands, and in creating something I
could truly believe inconverged in
this historical dye and its elaborate
process.
Indigo-bearing plants are found
throughout the world, and each
culture developed its own method
of processing the plants to extract
or concentrate the dye based on
their environment and climate. The
natural indigo most Americans
are familiar with today is indigo
precipitate. This indigo dyestuff is
made by steeping indigo-bearing
plants (mainly Indigofera tinctoria)
in large vats of water for a few
days until the leaves decompose
and release the indigo within.
This process originated in tropical
climates where temperatures during
Polygonum tinctorium in bloom, Fall
2010.

Indigo-dyed antique hemp kibira (mosquito

netting), 2009. TEXTILE BY ROWLAND RICKETTS;
PHOTO BY KEVIN MOONEY.

the harvest and processing season

keep the steeping water quite
warm, an essential part of the quick
decomposition necessary for making
a high-quality dye. Indigofera
tinctoria is the plant that most
Westerners think of as the indigo
plant, but it is actually a tropical
plant and is not native to America or
Europe.

Lichens

Fungi + Algae = Color!

by Glenna Dean

ave you ever noticed the miniature trees

and bushes used in model train sets or
for miniature landscaping? Often artificially
colored red or green, those little bushes are
actually lichens (pronounced lye-kins). Not
all lichens are bushy. Some resemble long
beards draped across tree branches; others
look like circular fans on the surfaces of
rocks; and still others bring to mind droplets
of fluorescent red, white, green, or yellow
paint spattered across boulders.
Certain species of lichens provide food, and
others produce valuable chemicals used for
centuries in perfumes and as antibiotics and
other medicines. Some of these chemicals
may make a lichen pale yellow-green, while
other chemicals give a lichen a particular
odor. And some of these chemicals can be
extracted and used as dyes.
PHOTOS BY JOE COCA UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED.
Dye from lichens can create an unexpected
rainbow of colors.

So what is a lichen, exactly?

A lichen is a fungus and a species of green algae or blue-green bacteria
(cyanobacterium) growing together in a symbiotic relationship that, strangely, is neither
plant nor parasite. Fungi lack chlorophyll and cannot photosynthesize food from sunlight
as can green plants. Specific fungi combine with specific algae or cyanobacteria (both
are photobionts) to make the shapes we recognize as different species of lichens. In this
symbiotic relationship, the photobiont keeps the fungus alive by producing more food
than it needs through photosynthesis. In turn, the fungus envelops the photobiont in
a firm structure that can be exposed to sunlight without drying out. Unique chemical
substances (weak phenolic or fatty acids) deposited on the surface protect the photobiont
from too much ultraviolet radiation from sunlightand, coincidentally, produce colors on
protein fibers when extracted.

trying to collect these for dyes.

In fact, never collect a lichen if it
will cause damage and never overcollect. Dont buy or sell lichens
either, because the profit motive
can drive over-collection and local
extinctions. Similarly, be aware
of collection policies in national
forests and get permission from
Lichens can commonly be found growing
on trees and rocks. PHOTOS BY GLENNA DEAN.
Usnea hirta

Collecting Lichens
Lichens are usually found on
rocks, on tree trunks, or hanging
from branches. Look on the ground
for lichens that have fallen from
trees or rocks or check out your
woodpile for lichens that have been
brought in with firewood. If access is
allowed, also check in areas that are
scheduled for bulldozing (road cuts,
housing developments), because
any trees and rocks may well be
slated for removal. You might find
more than one kind of lichen. Keep
them separate and do individual
dye extractions for a broader color
palette.
Lichens on rocks are often stuck
too tightly to remove without
damaging the rock, so dont bother