Early Fall Evenings

Weekly wine and Mah Jong nights and playing with indigo.. 

Indigo: Tools of the Trade

Work last week.. setting up our new exhibit on Indigo in Laos.
I discuss indigo often..  .. but it never gets old.. It might be one of my most favorite things ever.

Working on signage.. some shelving to house the gourds (3rd photo) and some dyed cotton skeins to show the range of color indigo is capable of.. more to come soon.

Indigo: Mrs. Jinkeo

Beautiful Indigo photos by my director, Joanna Smith. 

These were taken during training up in Luang Namtha Province in Ban Don Chai village. 

Lanten Women

Top two Photos by Joanna Smith. 

Some of the most beautiful women in Laos, The Lanten. 

They wear indigo jackets with bright pink tassels and cotton leg warmers.

 We sell these bags at the store. 

Indigo

New indigo silk shibori scarves... drying at work today. 

love these days.. 

Paris Vogue goes to North Africa

The pictures are stunning.

I am glad I brought home a few pieces of original Toureg (Men in Blue) scarves. The natural indigo and colors are stunning. The pieces I have are enormous, it is a very intricate process to wrap correctly and is extremely heavy.

Good to see head covers are still the rage.

The rest of the shoot looks as though it is in Morocco, but I didn't see in the credits.

Indigo Dye: Morocco

Indigo is in the middle 

You buy these by weight in the Pharmacy..where they sell all the remedies and spices for cooking and weird things like ground up frog legs mixed with tea...etc.

They ask you in and all where white lab coats...and then take you into a room with all the potions and of course the Argan Oil. They also have pure oils which smell great..and anything else. They also offer Morocco Viagra...Since I don't need it...I didn't really ask what it is. I think it is a tea??

And in another room they have the dyes. They are 1g for 2dh. which would work out to 25cents a gram..which is a pretty great deal. They are messy. I practiced on paper and various amounts of water. It is like paints..but when dry the powder still falls off.

The colors are much better for fabric. And I am sure with the right amount and playing around for long enough with right solution the amount of different colors from one dye would be beautiful.