In 2021, Reinhabitory Institute and Sustainable Skein conducted an indigo culture pilot on the Lake Erie Plain, spanning three states’ microclimates, occupied by grapevines and fruit trees.
This indigo culture ‘zine, spelling out the conditions of creating an indigo culture in your neighborhood, is produced in limited edition four times a year.
Because the indigo culture ‘zine is largely handmade, it is produced in limited quantities.
We are charging half the cost of production–$10–for dyers who would like to have copies of the ‘zine. Shipping will be determined depending on number of copies ordered.
$10
The below information gives you a taste of what is inside the indigo culture ‘zine.”
What is indigo culture?
The success of the pilot raised a question:
What is indigo culture?
The answer to that question is complex, involving:
- a workers cooperative of growers and dyers, with profits realized from raising and selling indigo dye as well as other natural dyes.
- the richly diverse cultural outcome of creole neighborhoods, with music, food, and multigenerational childcare
- homegrown local dyeing centers which produce workshops and products for sale.
Growing indigo for dyeing clothing and wool yarn for weaving rugs is a longstanding tradition on many continents.
Mexico, Central and South America.
Africa. India. Asia. Today Japan and Korea in particular nourish their traditional indigo culture.
The first synthetic dyes
were created from coal tar, a by-product of lighting streets and homes in neighborhoods in the late 19th century.
All dyes were natural
until petroleumwas drilled in western NY/PA less that than 150 years ago and exploited for uses including the combustion engine and many of today’s chemicals
Perhaps because fiber being dyed in indigo
does not have to be mordanted, it became popular for dyeing workaday clothing; outer clothing among fishermen in Korea, for instance, and blue denim in Europe and the United States.
Indigo’s antibacterial properties are evident.
Pants dyed with natural indigo can be washed less frequently.
Japanese fishermen
patch their blue work kimonos adding warmth with additional fabric. Adding patches has given rise to an artform called boro.
Young people in western countries patch their demin jeans with colorful patches or let them fray.
The benefits of a vibrant indigo culture are spread throughout the community: growers and dyers own the means of production cooperatively.
Indigo Culture
While the plants are often grown in small plots (10 x 10 or 15 x 20) in backyards, harvesting the plants and extracting the dye are done together by members of the growers and dyers cooperatively.
Indigo Culture
The benefits of a vibrant indigo culture are spread throughout the community: growers and dyers own the means of production cooperatively.
People bring dishes from their cultures and ethnicities to parties around community centers, trade seeds, watch each other’s children.
Old men and women sit in the shade and watch the young people invent new dance steps as old as the hills.
Local dyeing workshops call out the creole in neighborhoods.
Entre Deux Rivieres
Produced by artists, writers and printmakers in France’s book village Montolieu.
Letterpress in permanent collections.
Moon, Menses and Power
An adaptation of Leonard Shlain’s thesis in Sex, Time and Power, with permission from his daughter Tiffany Shlain, produced to celebrate a girl’s menarche. Letterpress. By Commission.