.: Indigo-dye class with Cath from Prints Charming! :.

Vee and I had an awesome afternoon yesterday.  We went along to an indigo-dye workshop run by none other than the fabulous Cath from Prints Charming!!  It was such a fun, inspiring and happy afternoon - and it was so wonderful to meet the gorgeous Cath, who we have both admired for so long!

We each took along a white 100% linen tablecloth to get into the indigo-dye action ... here are our finished tablecloths ... (I've nabbed Vee's pic from her instagram feed!) ...

So, back to the start.  How on earth did we create these tablecloths-of-awesome, we hear you wonder, as we have highly sensitive hearing.   Prior to the workshop, we really had no idea what to expect, and were completely fascinated by the process.  Cath showed us all lots of different and beautiful shibori examples - how I wish I had thought to take pics of them all!  

Cath then walked us through the various indigo-dye techniques - including clamping, stitching, wrapping with string, using stones, tiles, pieces of wood, old trampoline coils - the list of things you can use, and results you can come up with, are pretty endless and amazing.  We both loved how you can get really amazing effects without having to be too overly-controlled about the actual technique.

We both like the liked the look of the geometric shapes created by concertina-folding and clamping, so we took our tablecloths and wet them in the clam-shell toddler bath.  We then got busy folding, cutting timber with a hacksaw, clamping, wrapping with string, and just generally getting serious about creating two crazy red hot messes! 

I mean, really, can you believe it?  Here are our hot messes, ready to go into the indigo-dye bath, while we waited patiently with our glasses of bubbles.  Mine's at the top of the pic below, and Vee's is at the bottom.  After taking the pic, Cath suggested that we each add a few more clamps along the edges, to create some random negative spaces (which come up as little white spots/squares in the finished tablecloths) - such a great idea, and we both love the effect they created. 

And here's Cath supervising the indigo-dye-baths - this part of the process is pretty darn technical - we're talking a recipe, water temperature issues and a total love-hate relationship between indigo and oxygen.  We were very grateful for Cath's expertise!   

When our dyed-hot-messes come out of the dye-bath, they were a real yellowy-green colour - which is totally normal!!  After resting for a little while on a laundry-hanger (our hot-messes, not us), we undid the strings and clamps and hung our tablecloths on the line to watch the magic of the green turning to blue - a real hot-mess-to-fabulous transformation.  Here's mine:

And here's Vee's - the geometric shapes and patterns she managed to create were just amazing:

And here's mine this morning, hanging on the line at home, after lots of rinsing.

Pretty awesome, don't you agree?!  Far out we loved it, it was such a fun afternoon, and we are both so happy with our tablecloths!  The workshop was held at Cath's sister's Michelle's house - and it was lovely to meet Michelle, her daughter and also Cath's Mum Margaret.  We also got to meet the lovely Susan from JuMi Creations, who we've known online for quite a while.  And Vee got to meet Gill and Kelly from the Brisbane MQG.  There were some really lovely ladies at the workshop, which added so much to the afternoon.  

Thanks so much Cath, it was such a joy to meet you, we really had a wonderful afternoon, and we loved learning about indigo-dye. We've been totally inspired to have a go ourselves.  We'll see you for another workshop very soon!  xoxo cat and vee