🌿 INDIGO WEEK - Join us for a live online indigo journey
There is something about indigo that keeps drawing us back.
Not just the colour itself — but the process behind it. The slowness, the transformation, the way a vat shifts over time and asks for attention, observation and care.
This June, we are opening up that process through Indigo Week — a two-week live online immersion into working with indigo.
🌿 A SHARED PROCESS
Indigo Week is not a course in the usual sense.
It is a working sequence of live sessions, where we move through different aspects of indigo together — from historical context to practical vat building and ongoing development.
Some may join to listen, others to work alongside the sessions, building their own vats as we go.
Both approaches are welcome.
🌿 A RARE COMBINATION OF VOICES
I am genuinely delighted to bring this group together. It is rare to have such a breadth of experience in one place — spanning research, long-term practice, growing and contemporary work.
Throughout the two weeks, I, Jennifer Lienhard, will be guiding the practical side of the programme — making different indigo vats live alongside you, observing their behaviour and supporting the process as it develops.
Alongside this, Tristan Lienhard will share insights from our ongoing indigo work — including plant trials, growing conditions and how these directly influence pigment and dye outcomes.
We begin with Dominique Cardon, whose work has shaped how many of us understand indigo and natural colour across cultures and time.
Rosa Chang brings a contemporary perspective, exploring indigo through community, storytelling and lived experience.
With Britt Boles, we move into the slow and layered process of sukumo — from plant material through to vat.
For times etc, please visit here
🌿 WORKING WITH INDIGO
Across the two weeks, we will build and observe three different vats:
- fermentation
- mineral (iron)
- organic (fruit sugar)
Each behaves differently. Each teaches something.
Rather than focusing on one method, the aim is to develop understanding through comparison and practice.
🌿 NOT JUST A WEEK
One of the challenges with indigo is what happens after you make a vat.
This is where many people get stuck.
Indigo Week is designed to continue beyond the sessions.
Members receive ongoing support for the vats they have made — adjusting, troubleshooting and observing how they evolve over time.
🌿 SUKUMO — A SLOWER PROCESS
Alongside this, we will open up a Sukumo Make-along within the Academy.
This is a slower, shared process of building and maintaining a sukumo vat together — something that cannot be rushed, but develops over time.
🌿 WORK ALONGSIDE US
For those who would like to work practically, we have put together an Indigo Week Supply Bundle.
This includes the materials needed to explore the three vat types and can be added alongside membership or purchased later.
Participation does not require the bundle — but it allows you to fully engage in the making process.
🌿 HOW TO JOIN
Indigo Week takes place entirely online and can be joined from anywhere.
All sessions are recorded and available afterwards within the Membership Resource Library.
Access is offered through:
👉 Natural Dyers & Growers Academy Membership (€65/year)
Membership includes Indigo Week, the Sukumo Make-along and ongoing learning within the Academy.
🌿 A PROCESS, NOT A PRODUCT
At AppleOak, indigo is not treated as a single technique.
It is part of a wider cycle:
plant → pigment → vat → fibre
Indigo Week is an invitation into that cycle — to observe it, work with it, and begin to understand it through practice.
🌿 JOIN US
If you have been curious about indigo, or if you are already working with it and want to deepen your practice, you are very welcome to join us.
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