TRAVELLING TO SANUR / INDIGO DYEING

Moving day today and a stop on the way to a factory to try our hand at Indigo dyeing.  It is quite a process.  First you must wrap your rayon cloth on the bias around a 5 inch diameter piece of pvc tubing. Next you must wrap it with string placed about .75 inches apart.

 

After that you give it to a very strong man who scrunches it all together and then the fun begins!  We were using natural indigo dye made from the leaves of a tree called Indigo Tree. The factory we visited has found new ways to produce the indigo dye using an environmentally friendly and sustainable process. 

They collect the leaves and mulch them and leave them to ferment ...so, instead of the bark of the tree which, in time. kills the tree this is sustainable.  It was fascinating.  The equipment looks crude and rudimentary - but it works. The even had a water hyacinth treatment pond to clean the water and dye runoff without polluting the soil.  Environmentally conscious at the most basic level.

Ok, so after our cloth has been wrapped, strung and compressed - it is over to the vat of indigo slurry which is manually poured over the piece being dyed - then rinsed with a hose and water and then repeat the slurry pour and rinse and then taken off the roll and put into several different tubs of water and one of mordant to set the colour and then into more rinsing tubs. About 7 different baths in all and then hung out on a line to dry.  No wonder all these fabrics by the time they get to Canada and the rest of the world are so expensive. All in all it is a simple but time consuming process and all done with manual labour.  We got to keep  our three meter piece of fabric, so I guess I will have to find a clothing pattern to make something....or find a seamstress.

Above the indigo factory, There were weavers weaving all kinds of wonderful creations. There were also spinners wrapping the spools with indigo threads that had been hand  dyed - everything we saw was done manually using such old and crude machinery....but it works and works well.  People are employed and there is great pride in the production.  We had an opportunity to purchase fabrics or made objects from here and some of us did....after all this is a shopping trip!

On our way again and next stop was the Puri Santrian Resort - and what a resort!  It is right on the Indian Ocean and a beautiful spot for our last week in Bali.  There are a couple of pools to swim in, and a short walk to the beach.  Maybe  I will be lucky enough to find another piece of sea glass to add to my collection.  The resort pics will be another day that is not so busy

Saw a praying mantis today and had to take a picture of him/her - not quite sure how to sex a praying mantis - and not entirely sure I really need to know.