Blue Dye Museum and Class

Stamp samples

Headed to the Blue Dye workshop

Looking back to the main building

Our instructor showing us how to stamp the fabric.

Hanging it up to dry

Headed out on the tour~

Black Room~ This room used to be painted black so that when the blue dye splashed on the walls you couldn't see it.

To wash the starch out of the fabric

Big well they would pour the old dye in and the indigo would sink to the bottom and they would siphon off the water and reuse the dye.

The larger "newer" dye room

It worked on steam power.

The numbers over the vat helped them keep track of how old the dyes were.

The dyes were good for about a year. The older the dye the more dips you would need to get the right color.

The newer the dye the darker it was but the easier it was to mess up the fabric. 

Blue Dye

This is the ceiling of a drying room, they hung the 

fabric in these rooms and could light a fire 

to help the fabric dry faster in the rainy seasons.

They wouldn't dye during the winter because the stream they got water 

from would freeze over and they wouldn't have a water supply. 

Crazy crooked staircase~ its more lopsided than it looks.

It felt so weird to walk up this. 

This would have been a fancy dress during its time~ Such detail! 

Stamp Samples

Stamping machine ~ to make rolls of fabric

Large Stamps

If you look closely you can see the fabric has been stamped

More Samples

The laboratory - The blue Hungarian Dye is a secret formula

My favorite exibit~ the abrons, Hand dyed and hand stiched~ They were so beautiful! 

I really liked these too! 

This was another ceiling drying rack, this one has fabric on it to show how it would have been used. 

Blue dye items we could purcahse

The shuttered windows on top was the Drying room we were just in. They are now covered with glass but they used to be open to let the winds in to help the drying process. 

This could be filled with hot steam and then run the fabric through to help dry it more quickly. 

This was a spinner to help spin the water out of the fabric

I don't remember~ LOL 

Fireplace

The spinner still works!

You cant tell but its spinning! 

Fabric Polisher

It was filled with rocks

You put the fabric under the rollers and the heavy box rolled back and 

forth pressing the fabric and producing a shiny tight look. 

Cartoons the workers had pasted on the machine

Tools

Stove

Iron

More stamps

These were all hand made

Machine that took these stamps

Designers

Time to do my Project~

I kinda stressed the lady instructor out~ 

I didn't do the pattern how it was supposed to be done~ I'm independent like that. 

My signature

Finished piece~ I'll post a picture once its finished being dyed in 2 weeks

The instructor dying his fabric

It gets bluer as its sit's exposed to the air

This is after a 2nd dipping

What I bought