Brooklyn-Based design studio, Crème, team up with Chinese furniture maker Stellar Works to bring us furniture worthy of our indigo-dyed, raw denim clad butts.
At Rope Dye, we like to bring you solutions, practical solutions. A few months ago we solved the problem of your new raw denim jeans turning your crisp white trainers blue. You can check that out here.
Don’t be Blue!
Now we are going to solve a similar issue, in a similar manner. Your new raw’s turning white furniture blue. Introducing Indigo dyed furniture!
So, I bet you are thinking, that’s not too novel… I am sure I have seen some indigo dyed cushions kicking around before. This is true. But the Brooklyn-based studio Crème responsible for crafting these unique pieces of furniture have gone one step further, they have dyed the actual wood!
A Novel Twist on Tradition
Crème worked in collaboration with the Chinese brand, Stellar Works to meld together the classic yet modern aesthetic of the Stellar Works furniture with traditional Chinese dying techniques.
“The development of the special-edition indigo chair has been a very rewarding process as it captures the essence of Chinese craft heritage and handmade production processes within a contemporary piece of furniture,”
said CEO and founder of Stellar Works Yuichiro Hori.
All Natural, All Organic
The natural indigo used to colour the special edition chairs was organically grown in the Guizhou village in southern China. It was then harvested and applied in much the same way that Indigo is applied to the cloth. Traditional methods such as multiple dips and batik were used to stunning effect.
Copper and Indigo, Always a Winning Combo!
Whether it is a nod to denim and jeans or just the fact that copper offsets the blue tones so beautifully, copper hardware was used to great effect throughout the collection.
Wax On!
Here you can see how the batik was used. When dying cloth using the batik technique, a wax is added to the fabric to protect it from the dye penetrating that area. You can see here that half of the chair was waxed before the indigo was applied.
Taking a Dip
To achieve the three distinct hues of indigo you see here, the multiple dip technique was used – much like hank dying, the chair would have been submerged at different depths for a varied number of dips. The darker blue results from a greater number of dips in the indigo bath.
It is fascinating to see indigo used in this way. It leaves us wondering, will these chairs “fade” over time and use? How will they patina? It is certainly something we will try and keep our eye on.
It should be noted, however, by solving one problem we might have created another for you traditionalists. This beautiful wood won’t like exposed back pocket rivets all that much! You’ve been warned!
Now, these chairs were limited edition and so far we’ve not discovered how we can get out hands (or asses) on one. We will be following up however and in the meantime, head across to the Crème and Stellar Works websites to see some damn fine work.
