Indigo Blue
Made with the leaves of the Indigofera tinctoria
Our handmade watercolours are all available on our Etsy store.
The Indigo blue has a deep, calming tone, perhaps reflective of the fermentation process that transforms the deep green leaves into a luscious blue pigments.
Our growing pots of Indigofera tinctoria are possible thanks to the people from Studio Naenna, whom we visited in Chiang Mai a few years ago in 2022. These seeds germinate readily in our climate, and they are relatively fuss-free to grow, though consistent fertilization is recommended. Also, they are part of the bean family, with fruit pods that turn brown when they mature.
Today, most of the “indigo” used to dye denim and other fabrics are synthetically manufactured based on the naturally-occuring indigotin compounds these plants hold. Still, there are many dyers who continue the traditional method of making indigo from plants. We have met many indigo dyers in North Thailand and in North Vietnam, where a dyer Mua showed us to her bush of Strobilanthes cusia, another indigo plant with much bigger leaves. We shared about our visit to her dye shop in our Substack newsletter here.
There are more than a dozen species of plants that holds the indigo blue. We are in the process of trying to make our own more consistently, however, our pots of Indigofera sp. yields little. Hence, our current Indigo pigments are sourced from the indigo experts at Tarai Blue, whose studio is in the Himalayas. We then combine the pigments with our watercolour binder, patiently mulling each batch into the indigo paints that you may have.
