The Indigo Vat

Aboubakar Fofana calls himself an indigo addict, but after 30 years spent learning and practicing we consider him a master. I had the chance to take a three day workshop with him in Brooklyn and continued with my own addiction to the color blue.

After my time at Chateau Dumas, I felt that I needed more practice with the vat and to understanding all the nuances that go along with mixing and maintaining a healthy dye bath. In our Gowanus workspace it was all about that. We were set the task to obtain 6 distinct color bars. There are 12 possible shades from the softest suggestion of color called The Blue of Nothingness to Profound Divine Sky which looks almost black. 12 shades would be too much for us to handle, so 6 shades would be more reasonable in the time we had.

Even so that was a challenge. We soon found out that the lightest colors are the hardest to obtain. The two vats that we had to use were fresh and the lighter colors are best obtained from an older solution. All in all we did pretty well.

It was a great experience. I must apologize for my photos. We were encouraged to concentrate on our work and keep the cameras in the bag. These were a few quick phone shots, more for me to remember than a polished presentation.