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Vellis Indigo
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Natural indigo dye house

I grow the leaf that turns cloth blue.

I run a small dye house. The method never changes, so I show it in the order it happens.

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Five chapters, in order.

Linen just out of the indigo vat, still yellow green and dripping over the dark liquid, in a stone dye house.
Cloth comes out of the dip yellow green, and then the air turns it blue while you watch.
The method

Leaf to cloth, in the order it happens.

  1. I cut the leaf in the morning while it is cool, and it goes into water the same day.

  2. The leaf ferments in a warm vat until it smells sweet and the surface turns the colour of copper.

  3. Cloth goes in slowly and comes out yellow green. Nothing looks right yet, which is the point.

  4. In the air the green turns blue in front of you. I hang it and wait.

  5. Rinse, rest, rinse again, until the water runs clear and the blue stops moving.

Every chapter ends with cloth you can hold, not a description of it.

Freshly cut indigo leaf piled beside a tub of water
Harvest
Looking down into a fermenting indigo vat with a paddle resting in it
Vat
Wet linen lifted from the vat on a pole, still yellow green
Dip
Dyed cloth hanging in the yard turning from green to blue in the air
Oxidise
Blue cloth rinsed in a stone trough until the water runs clear
Wash
A bolt of undyed linen on the bench, the job before it goes in
The running jobExample

A bolt of undyed linen, wanted for a set of curtains.

The vat woke up overnight and is ready to take cloth.

First dip done. Pale so far, which is how it should be.

Another dip hanging in the yard, the blue settling.

Washed, dried, folded. The colour it will keep.

Lines of blue cloth drying in a walled yard
The drying yard The drying yard, where the green turns blue. Cloth comes out of the dip yellow green, and then the air turns it blue while you watch.
  • Cut indigo leaf, still wet, heaped on the flagstones
  • The copper skin of the vat with the blue foam gathered at its centre
  • Finished blue linen pegged on the hemp line, the weave showing
Three indigo vats along a wall with dipping poles hooked above them
Assistant on your siteMorning
Studio

One dyer, a small team, and the vats.

I started the house because the blue I wanted was not for sale. The people here keep the vats warm and the lines full.

Hands stained indigo to the wrist resting on the rim of a vat
  • Isolde VellisFounder and dyer
  • Ottilie CobbledenVat keeper
  • Casimir LindlehurstYard and drying
  • Priya ThistlewaiteCloth and orders

I dye what the vats can hold. When they are full I tell you the week they empty.

Questions

What people ask before they send cloth.

A swatch of finished blue laid on paper on the bench, stained fingertips holding it flat
  • Does the colour fade?It softens over the years and stays blue. That is how indigo behaves and I would not sell it as anything else.
  • I have a swatch. Will mine come out the same?Near it, never on it. Indigo is a depth, not a mix, so I dip until the swatch and the cloth sit together in daylight, and stop there.
  • Do you dye cloth I send you?Yes, if it is a natural fibre and washed first. I say what it will take before it goes in.
  • When does my cloth come back?The vat decides. It takes cloth when it is ready and not before, and a deep blue wants several dips with rest between. I give you a week, not a day.
  • Can I visit while my cloth is in the vat?Yes. Dip days are open to the people whose cloth it is.
Contact

Show me the cloth. I will say how blue it can go.

A photo of the cloth and a word about the blue is enough. I look at the fibre, choose the vat, and come back with the week it could go in.

Start

Or ask the assistant on this page. It knows the method.

Folded blue linen on paper with stained fingertips resting on it