Tien Chiu

  • Home
  • About
    • Honors, Awards, and Publications
  • Online Teaching
  • Gallery
  • Essays
  • Book
  • Blog
  • Dye samples
You are here: Home / Travels / Ghana / Daboya – spinning and indigo dyeing

Daboya – spinning and indigo dyeing

I asked to meet a cotton handspinner in Ghana, but this was difficult to find, as the practice has virtually died out with the advent of machine-spun yarns.  Finally I found someone who had heard of someone in Daboya (a very small town) who still did it, so off I went in search of the spinner.

And I found her! and, coincidentally, a community of indigo dyers.  Riches!

You can read more about my experiences in Ghana in the Ghana section of my travel blog.

[Show as slideshow]
River to Daboya To get to Daboya, you have to take a 2.5-hour bus ride, then you have to ford the river.
Fording the river to Daboya Fording the river.

Removing seeds from cotton for spinning Spinning cotton. First she removes the seeds by hand...
Fluffing up the cotton ...then she plucks a bow through the cotton to fluff it up. (Interestingly enough, this is the same method used by the Akha people in Thailand. See the Akha spinning section of the Thailand travel page for details!)

Forming the rolag Next she rolls the fluffed cotton onto a stick, forming a rolag.
Attaching the rolag to the spindle Attaching the rolag to the spindle.

Spinning the cotton in Ghana Spinning. Notice that she is winding on to the top of the spindle. I asked if she was eventually going to wind it onto the base of the spindle, but was unable to communicate my question well enough to get an answer.
Ghanaian cotton spinning spindle The spindle. The whorl is crudely formed, and is made out of clay/mud to be found near the river. Sometimes they're decorated with white stripes et al.

Mordant for indigo dyeing Some kind of mordant used with the indigo. They import it from Burkina Faso, burn it to ash, and add it to the dyepot.
Indigo pot Indigo dyepot. The ashes, some acid, and indigoferous plants are added, then it is allowed to ferment for several days before using. The pit is usually 6-7 feet deep (!)

A spent indigo pot A spent indigo pot. A pot can last for 3 days to 3 weeks before it goes sour, depending on the weather (when cool, it can last up to three weeks, but in the heat of the dry season, it might last only two days.
Indigo leaves A ball of dried indigoferous herbs. I didn't manage to see a live plant, or I'd have photographed it.

Skeins dyed with indigo Indigo-dipped skeins.
Tied-resist weaving A young man weaving. Looking closely, you can see horizontal white stripes in the cloth he is weaving. These are formed using a tied-resist: a very long skein is laid out, rope wrapped around portions of it, then it is indigo-dyed. The result is a weft that is both blue and white, resulting in regular blue-and-white stripes without needing to change wefts.

Sleying the reed for kente weaving Threading the loom and sleying the reed. If you look closely, you can see that the reed is much coarser than the one used by the Ewe people. Also, the strips woven are narrower, perhaps 2.5-3" wide, rather than 4-5" as with the Ewe.
The bus home. The bus home. (How do you fit 80 people into a minivan...?) On the way home, they put a cow into the trunk of the van, in addition to all the people. Yes--a COW.

Share this post!

  • Tweet
  • More
  • Email
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Print

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Information resources

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • How-Tos
    • Dyeing and surface design
    • Weaving
    • Designing handwoven cloth
    • Sewing

Blog posts

  • All blog posts
    • food
      • chocolate
    • musings
    • textiles
      • dyeing
      • knitting
      • sewing
      • surface design
      • weaving
    • writing

Archives

Photos from my travels

  • Dye samples
    • Procion MX fiber-reactive dye samples on cotton
    • How to "read" the dye sample sets
    • Dye sample strategy - the "Cube" method
  • Travels
    • Thailand
    • Cambodia
    • Vietnam
    • Laos
    • India
    • Ghana
    • China

Travel Blog

Entertaining miscellanies

© Copyright 2016 Tien Chiu · All Rights Reserved ·