If you all read my Batik post in the past ; Batik is a wax-resist dyeing technique. The patterns are drawn or stamped on
a fabric with melted wax than removed the wax by boiling the fabric until the
pattern is achieved.
Today I will specially talked about Indigo Batik, I have
posted some visit to Pak Tjok of Pura Pejeng, one of it here. As you can see me sporting an Indigo batik scarf, I feel like I have to talk
more about it as Pak Tjok Batik is simply amazing...
Why indigo? Aside from being a Batik fabric. Indigo blue
is such a beautiful color, sport it casual, sport is haute couture, it's just a
great cooling and soothing color!
The primary use for indigo is as a dye for cotton yarn, which is mainly for the production of denim cloth for blue jeans. On average, a pair of blue jean trousers requires 3–12 g of indigo. Small amounts are used for dyeing wool and silk. Indigo carmine, or indigo, is an indigo derivative which is also used as a colorant.
A variety of plants have provided indigo throughout history, but most natural indigo was obtained from those in the genus Indigofera, which are native to the tropics like Thailand and Bali. Both Indigo leave from Thailand and from Bali are from the same Indigo family plants but different in the shape of the leaves. The primary commercial indigo species in Asia was true indigo (Indigofera tinctoria, also known as Indigo sumatrana). A common alternative used in the relatively colder subtropical locations such as Japan's Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan is Strobilanthes cusia. In Central and South America, the two species grown are Indigo suffruticosa and dyer's knotweed (Polygonum tinctorum), BUT the Indigofera species yield more dye.
The precursor to indigo is indican, a colorless, water-soluble derivative of the amino acid tryptophan. Indican readily hydrolyzes to release β-D-glucose and indoxyl. Oxidation by exposure to air converts indoxyl to indigo. Indican was obtained from the processing of the plant's leaves, which contain as much as 0.2–0.8% of this compound. The leaves were soaked in water and fermented to convert the glycoside indican present in the plant to the blue dye indigotin. The precipitate from the fermented leaf solution was mixed with a strong base such as lye, pressed into cakes, dried, and powdered. The powder was then mixed with various other substances to produce different shades of blue and purple.
Indigo is among the oldest dyes to be used for textile dyeing and printing. Many Asian countries, such as India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asian nations have used indigo as a dye (particularly silk dye) for centuries.
India is believed to be the oldest center of indigo dyeing in the Old World. It was a primary supplier of indigo to Europe as early as the Greco-Roman era. The association of India with indigo is reflected in the Greek word for the dye, indikón (ινδικόν, Indian). The Romans latinized the term to indicum, which passed into Italian dialect and eventually into English as the word indigo.
In Japan, indigo became especially important in the Edo period, when it was forbidden to use silk, so the Japanese began to import and plant cotton. It was difficult to dye the cotton fiber except with indigo. Even today indigo is very much appreciated as a color for the summer Kimono Yukata, as this traditional clothing recalls Nature and the blue sea.
In colonial North America, three commercially important species are found: the native Indigo caroliniana, and the introduced Indigo tinctoria and Indigo suffruticosa. Because of its high value as a trading commodity, indigo was often referred to as blue gold.
thank you all for stopping by, reading the bits and viewing the post...
xxx
