Interview with Jenny Balfour-Paul
Dyeing with homegrown indigo, weld and Mexican cochineal. Image © Jenny Balfour-Paul 2017.For anyone who isn’t familiar with your work yet, could you tell us how you are currently involved in natural dyeing please?
My main focus recently has been an indigo event in Kolkata which took place last November, for which I was a consultant. The aim was to celebrate natural indigo and promote feasible revivals of producing and dyeing with it. (More details below.) I am exploring ways of using natural indigo in education and am also working on historical uses of indigo, such as for paint in manuscripts (I ran a workshop recently at the Bodleian Library in Oxford so that curators could experience both dyeing and painting with indigo). I am collaborating with colleagues researching 18th century books of dye recipes and samples.
When did your interest in natural dyes begin and what or who inspired that?
Travelling overland to India as a teenager opened my eyes to the richness of textiles and their colours. The first object I ever acquired (in an exchange for a pair of jeans) was an Afghan carpet bag dyed in madder and indigo. In my early twenties I worked and lived in the Arab world where I saw wonderful weaving and dyeing, and in Tunisia I was taught how to use plant dyes by a French nurse who had spent most of her life in North Africa. I was also a batik artist, using Procion dyes then. Back in UK I was lucky enough to study at her Devon studio with Susan Bosence , dyer and block printer who taught at Farnham. She was passionate about indigo though the source was synthetic indigo at that time. When I went to Yemen with my husband in 1983 and discovered that there were still a few traditional indigo dyers working there, Susan urged me to return and record their work, stressing how important it was to make such records ‘in case of revivals in the future’. She even found me a grant to enable me do this fieldwork, and that started my entire career.
How has your work progressed over the years? What have you become more interested in? What have you become less interested in?
While I was doing my PhD on ‘Indigo in the Arab World’ (later published) and also my book ‘Indigo: Egyptian Mummies to Blue Jeans’ I was most focussed on recording all that I could about indigo practices that had been going on for centuries but in many cases were in danger of dying out. I was always growing my own indigo plants and reading widely in libraries and archives for the historical and background information. Since I began in the early 1980s there has been a marked increase of interest in natural dyes for reasons of sustainability. I am now doing much less historical and academic research and instead putting my energies into the practical promotion of natural indigo, whether through education, exhibitions, writing or other media.
 |
 |
 |
|---|
Indigo is unique in the way it behaves, there is no other natural dye like it. Dyeing with it is magical, due to its extraordinary chemistry. The potential of the textile techniques that go with it fascinate me, such as shibhori, block-printing etc. It is a beautiful colour, reflecting the colour of the planet, and has an incredible history. I love the way it connects the disciplines as well as people and places across the globe.
|
Jenny's first field trip in Zabid, Yemen. Image © Jenny Balfour-Paul 2017. |
Making indigo from 'mountain indigo', SW China 1993. Image © Jenny Balfour-Paul 2017. |
|---|
Where in the world has your craft taken you and where was most interesting?
There are so many places I loved and I have always been a keen traveller. However, looking back - and given what has happened since - the visits to Yemen were fascinating. Also, travelling in what was then remotest southwest China just at the point when it was opening up to the West was incredible. I was also bowled over by Bhutan and love travelling in Buddhist countries, and I also feel at home in Bengal and Bangladesh, where I have many friends and where the textiles are outstanding and the indigo story is complex.
Some people are confused between ‘tropical’ indigo and woad. Can you explain the difference and reason for this confusion please?
It is to do with history and process. The precursor to indigo dye contained in the leaves of all the indigo-bearing plants is so-called ‘indigo white’, but the plants were processed in different ways. Woad leaves were crushed up to make a kind of compost (as Polygonum tinctorium still is today in Japan) which means that the indigo dye pigment was never extracted from the leaves. In Antiquity rock hard ‘stones’ of indigo pigment that had been extracted from ‘tropical indigo’ leaves (notably Indigofera tinctorium) arrived in Europe but they were considered a painting material entirely different from the fermented woad leaves being traded and used by the woad dyers. The actual blue colour from all the plant sources and however processed is indigo, a marvellous molecule. The word Indigo comes from the imported ‘stones’ – they were ‘a substance from India’.
In Module 1 of this training, we focus on creating a spectrum of dyes using indigo, madder and weld. Do you have any ‘top tips’ or tricks you’ve discovered when working with indigo that might help a beginner?
- Never be in a rush or try to shortcut the multiple dipping. Make sure the dye vat is warm. I feel it makes a difference to leave the dyed cloth or yarn to ‘cure’ for several days if possible (in somewhere dark), rather than rinse at once – it seems to improve the fastness of the dye
- Always use gentle eco washing products not harsh detergents
- I always make a little ‘indigo dye god’ the Japanese way before I dye. It reminds me to respect the dye vat and slow down before starting
You were a consultant for ‘Indigo Sutra – an international event to celebrate, promote and revive natural indigo’ in Kolkata in 2017. It sounded very exciting! Could you tell us about it please?
INDIGO SUTRA began with a dream shared with fellow indigo lover Amrita Mukerji. In 2000 we explored West Bengal in the footsteps of explorer and indigo planter Thomas Machell a century and a half earlier, seeking his former indigo factories and wondering if history could be reversed in a positive way.
Indigo was grown and used for millennia in the Indian Subcontinent, but in the 19th century Bengali labour was ruthlessly exploited by European (mainly British) planters to produce most of the world’s supply. In the later 19th and early 20th century, peasant revolts and the discovery of synthetic indigo in Germany destroyed the industry.
However, there is renewed interest today in returning to organic indigo from Indigofera species, soil enrichers with many environmental benefits. Sutra Textile Studies, founded by Amrita Mukerji in Kolkata in 2002, has run events on conservation, batik and natural dyes, but Indigo Sutra aimed to encourage natural indigo revivals in Northern India and elsewhere, using expertise and guidance from Indian and international scholars and practitioners.
A two day seminar was followed by two more days of practical workshops and demonstrations. There was a major exhibition, Grand Bazaar of naturally-dyed textiles, indigo fashion show and the first indigo auction to be held in Kolkata for well over a century. Participants also went on optional excursions to weaving and dyeing centres outside Kolkata, as well as places of interest within the city. The event was oversubscribed and the follow-up has been widespread and encouraging.
INDIGO SUTRA was held at ICCR, Indian Council for Cultural Relation, and J. D. Birla Institute in Kolkata from 9th-18th November, 2017. See the website www.sutratextilestudies for details.
Do you have any other events coming up?
Most events are listed on my website https://deeperthanindigo.com/events/
Is there anywhere you haven’t been that you’d like to visit and any dye plants you haven’t used that you’d like to try?
I would like to go to Oaxaca in Mexico. I am happy to stick with indigo in professional terms, not least because it is a vegetable dye. I look forward to having fun with dyes such as onion skins and walnuts with my grandson soon.
As the popularity and awareness of natural dyes increases what would be the best case scenario for the future of this craft in say 50 years time? What would be the worst case scenario in your opinion?
Best case scenario is a much less wasteful textile industry that respects the environment. This would mean that people buy fewer clothes of better quality, ideally made from organic fibres dyed with sustainable natural dyes (people will surely always crave colour). Worst case would be even more pollution caused by toxic chemicals used in the textile industry and even greater demand for cheap fast fashion.
Is there anyone currently (new or old!) inspiring you? Can you recommend any great blogs or social media pages to follow?
- Dominique Cardon is the most amazing woman who tirelessly promotes all natural dyes and wrote the bible on natural dyes
- The remarkable Charllotte Kwon, founder of Maiwa in Vancouver has shown that it is possible to be commercially successful using only natural dyes. Maiwa also supplies a wonderful range of mail-order natural dyes and materials and share their process in a blog
- Hiroyuki Shindo, who founded his wonderful Little Indigo Museum near Kyoto and creates wonderful textiles, including an installation especially for the exhibition ‘Indigo: A Blue to Dye for’ for which I was consultant curator
- Amrita Mukerji, founder of Sutra Textile Studies in Kolkata has done a tireless job promoting Indian textiles, natural dyes and conservation and is now spearheading Indigo Sutra in November 2017
- Donna Brown in US has a wonderful collaboration between Rocky Mountain Weavers’ Guild and Denver Botanic Gardens, creating a dye plant garden that produces and uses natural dyes and also educates adults and children alike
- Jesus Ciriza Larraona, founder of Colours of Nature, created this company that commercially uses natural dyes and has even made eco-jeans for Levi Strauss from its naturally dyed organic cotton denim
- Ruby Ghuznavi had the foresight and vision to found Aranya in the 1980s to bring natural dyeing back to Bangladesh, and is also Chairperson of the Natural Dye Program of the World Crafts Council
- Living Blue in Bangladesh is also creating wonderful products of natural indigo
- Santanu Das of Maku is creating beautiful slow garments of natural indigo in Kolkata
- Rhina Yolanda de Rehmann has revived indigo in El Salvador in a remarkable project that also provides employment to young men scarred by fighting in the civil war there
- Vicky Vijayakumar, head of dyeing at Aranya Naturals, founded by Ratna Krishnakumar is doing fabulous work with natural dyes while giving employment to differently abled children
- Michel Garcia of Coleurs Garance has a dye plant garden in France, teaches natural dyeing all over the world and had created dvds about it. He has developed the safer fructose 1-2-3-vat that is widely used now
- Polly Lyster of Dyeworks near Stroud is a wonderful dyer though she doesn’t always use natural dyes
- Films/DVDs: New Deal Films ‘Blue Alchemy:Stories of Indigo’ and the Maiwa film ‘A World of Blue’,
I am encouraged by a new generation, not least the work that you are doing Justine.
What do you hope your legacy will be?
I don’t think about legacy, but I would like to feel that there are enough people who care about sustainable dyes, notably indigo, to carry on using and promoting them in future generations. And that in a very small way I have passed on something positive, not least in my books and by ensuring my collections are conserved and accessible in public institutions for others to enjoy and use.
