{"id":387,"date":"2015-06-21T19:28:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T19:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/21\/the-magic-blue-2\/"},"modified":"2015-06-21T19:28:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T19:28:00","slug":"the-magic-blue-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/the-magic-blue-2.html","title":{"rendered":"The Magic Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nIndigo<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat aesthetic elements are essential in the creation of
\nfabulous textiles?  Pattern, Texture,
\nColor.  Without these elements cloth
\nwould be merely utilitarian.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\nIn my blog \u201cThe Red That Colored the World\u201d, June 7, 2015 I
\ntold of an exhibition currently at the Museum of International Folk Art
\nfeaturing textiles dyed with cochineal. 
\nToday, the topic is indigo and an exhibition at the Museum of Spanish
\nColonial Art, entitled \u201cBlue on Blue: Indigo and Cobalt in New Spain\u201d. <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n
\n                              Japanese indigo-dyed fabric<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe earliest records of indigo dyeing (more that 4,000 years
\nago) came from India, hence the word \u201cindicum\u201d which is Latin for India.  The main constituent of indigo is indigotin,
\nwhich is prepared from the leaves of various species of Indigofera.  For thousands of years the secret of indigo
\ndyeing remained within India and the far east. 
\nIn the 13th<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> C Italian merchants procured
\nindigo from Muslim lands around the Mediterranean.  It was Venice that first promoted the use of this dye-stuff.  However, France and Germany relied on woad,
\nwhich was produced by their farmers. 
\nCalling indigo the \u201cDevil\u2019s dye\u201d or Devil\u2019s drug they banned the use of
\nindigo by official decrees.  Since woad
\nwas not produced in England and Holland the dyers of these countries embraced
\nthe dye.  The attributes of indigo,
\n(non-fugative , and 30 times more potent than woad) f<\/span>ar outweighed the problems encountered with its production.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n100 pounds of plant material is required to produce a 4
\nounce cake of indigotin.  The dye cake
\ndoes not dissolve in water but must be prepared in an alkaline bath.  At this stage the bath has very little blue
\ncolor and the fabric dyed in this bath is a pale yellow-green.  It is only when the fabric is exposed to air
\nthat the indigotin is oxidized.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nNatural indigo is still used for dyeing traditional textiles
\nin Japan, Africa and other countries and is experiencing a resurgance in
\npopularity among dyers using traditional, natural dye ingredients and techniques.  More than 20,000,000 pounds of synthetic
\nindigo are produced annually throughout the world.   <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe exhibition at the Museum of Spanish Colonial Art came as
\na result of excavations made at the Cathedral of St. Francis in the 1950s.  The sarcophagus containing the bones of two
\nFranciscan friars was uncovered, and when opened revealed not only the
\nskeletons of the friars but their blue robes. 
\nThis was an important find as the habits of Franciscan friars were brown
\nor the natural gray of the woven wool. 
\nThey were actually called \u201cgray-robed friars\u201d.  This example of the use of indigo ( brought up the Camino Real
\nfrom Mexico and Central America) to dye fabric in the colonial period of New
\nMexico led to the  further study of the
\nuse of indigo in textiles, pottery, paintings and sculpture.   <\/span><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\nThe Museum of Spanish Colonial Art is located on Museum
\nHill, Santa Fe, NM.  spanishcolonial.org<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indigo What aesthetic elements are essential in the creation of fabulous textiles?  Pattern, Texture, Color.  Without these elements cloth would be merely utilitarian. In my blog \u201cThe Red That Colored the World\u201d, June 7, 2015 I told of an exhibition currently at the Museum of International Folk Art featuring textiles dyed with cochineal.  Today, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinnamonstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}