Take a walk down Taipei's Yungkang Street (永康街) or around the Shihta (師大) night market and you'll find exotic hand-dyed handicrafts and clothing in many shops. This ample supply caters to a growing number of consumers who want garments with a touch of nature.
Indigo-dyed items, with their easy availability and quaint appearance are the most popular kind of hand-dyed products currently on the market. But most of these items are made from cloth imported from India, Thailand or China, among others. This is a bit of an irony for a country that in the 19th century was a major player in the international indigo dyestuff market.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL TAIWAN CRAFT RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong brought indigo to Taiwan 400 years ago, where it flourished, making Taiwan a major exporter of dyed cloth -- annual average of 1,260kg -- in the 1850s.
Indigo dyestuff later became a major export, along with sugar and camphor, in the early 20th century.
"Recently, people have become aware of the importance of cane sugar and camphor in Taiwan's industrial history. But indigo has been somewhat neglected," said Ma Feng-mei (馬芬妹), an assistant researcher at the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute (國立台灣工藝研究所) and organizer of The Beauty of Indigo, (藍染之美) an exhibition of indigo dyed works currently on show at the institute's Taipei branch.
The institute launched a program to expand indigo plantation in Taiwan in 1995. Workshops on dyeing have been held annually since 1998. In the exhibition, instructors and students from these workshops share the results of their work. They have contributed 150 works to the show, ranging from simple tablecloths, handbags and scarves to technically-demanding dolls and traditional Hakka robes. Twenty private studios will also exhibit indigo-dyed textiles.
Resuscitating the indigo industry was far from easy. After a 70-year interval, indigo plantations had disappeared and many craftspeople had passed away. The institute instigated a planting program that produced 20kg to 30kg of dye every other year for the workshops of 12-50 students. Dyeing methods had to be pieced together from ancient documents, and the right procedure was found through trial-and-error.
In the exhibition, tie-and-dye represents a significant portion of the exhibits, while another section is of weaving with dyed yarn.
A 180cm by 180cm quilt is a joint work by four instructors and 12 students from the workshop. It showcases various dyeing techniques. It's a spectacular work born out of a simple concept but a lot of patience. Compared with the venue's last exhibition of dazzling Gueizhou wax-dyed works, this may seem rather homely. But it is significant in heralding a new start to indigo dye craftsmanship in Taiwan.
"Even in the golden era of Taiwan's indigo industry, people dyed textiles in one single shade without making patterns on them. Press-dyeing, paste-dyeing and wax-dyeing, which produces intricate designs, such as those made in China, we never made here," Ma said. "These works are a start. We may see people making more creative indigo-dyed works in the future."
More Information: The Beauty of Indigo will be on show until April 13 at the National Taiwan Craft Research Institute, Taipei, 9F, No. 20, Nanhai Rd., Taipei (
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