• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.1933-1946
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• 2010

This paper is a comparative analysis of the $19^{th}$ century practice of indigo dyes and dyeing in Korea and England. From over hundreds species of indigo plants in the world, it was dyer's knotweed and woad that were cultivated in Korea; however, the only indigo plant grown in England was woad. Indigo dye was produced in the form of damp indigo sediment (jeon) in Korea; however, imported indigo (as a main dye) and couched woad (as an additional dye) were indigo dyes used in England. There existed three kinds of indigo vats, the ice vat, ash-water vat, and indigo sediment (jeon) vat, in Korea. The fresh leaves of indigo were used for both the ice vat and ash-water vat. The ice vat was very convenient for preparation, but had a weakness in the inability to produce a very deep shade of blue. The ash-water vat and indigo sediment (jeon) vat were in use for producing a very deep shade of blue. The indigo sediment Goon) vat was employed presumably only by professional dyers. The indigo vat practiced in England was categorized into two types; one was woad-indigo vat, and the other was an indigo powder vat prepared by using imported indigo rock. There was a tendency to adopt different kinds of indigo vats according to the material to be dyed. The woad-indigo vat was employed for the dyeing of wool. A few of chemical vats with imported indigo were adopted, especially for the dyeing of cotton. Indigo dyers in 19th century Korea were differentiated from the rest of the dyers. They managed the growing of indigo plants as well as the production of indigo sediment (jeon). Woad dyers in 19th century England handled woolen cloth as well as worsted and woolen yarn in general. However, they sometimes dyed silk skein as well. They produced several colors such as black, blue, slates, grays, by using both woad and imported indigo.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.23-32
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to investigate the efficacy of leaf powder colorants as substitutes for traditional indigo dyeing. Leaf powder colorants were prepared by hot air($50^{\circ}C$) and room temperanrre($25^{\circ}C$) drying methods from fresh leaves. The presence of indigo in the leaf powder colorants was confirmed by UV/Visible absorption spectra. All the powder colorants showed broad absorption at 602 nm as same as synthetic indigo. Dyeing was done by reduction method with sodium hydrosulfite and sodium hydroxide. Leaf powder colorants produced blue color on silk fabrics, showing similar color to the one dyed traditionally with fresh juice extract. The powder colorants prepared at room temperature drying were more stable for long term storage than that prepared by hot air drying. Thus, the powder colorants prepared by room temperature drying was reduced and dyed in one-step process without sodium hydroxide in the dyebath for further investigate dyeing properties. K/S value of the fabric dyed without sodium hydroxide was much higher than one dyed with sodium hydroxide. Regardless of the addition of sodium hydroxide, rubbing fastness was fairly good showing above 4 rating. Fastness to dry cleaning and light of the fabrics dyed without sodium hydroxide were mote higher than that dyed in alkaline condition.

• Textile Coloration and Finishing
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 2009

The objective of this study is to investigate the efficacy of leaf powder colorants as substitutes for traditional fresh juice extract dyeing. Three kinds of leaf powder colorants were prepared by freeze drying method with or without deep freezing as pre-treatment: one powder colorant from fresh leaf juice with deep freezing; two kinds of powder colorant from fresh leaves with and without deep freezing. Their dyeing properties and storage stabilities were studied and compared with the traditional fresh juice extract dyeing. The presence of indigo in the powder colorants was confirmed by UV/Visible absorption spectra. They showed absorption peak at 602nm which was same with indigo absorption peak. Dyeing was done at low temperature around 6$^{\circ}C$. All three powder colorants produced B colors on silk fabrics, showing similar color to the one dyed traditionally with fresh juice extract. The powder colorants from leaves gave higher color strength than the powder from leaf juice. The powder colorant prepared from leaves with deep freezing was the most stable for long term storage as its color and color strength were not changed after 360 days. So, this was used for further dyeing to study the effects of concentration and repeat dyeing on color strength and colorfastness. Fastnesses to dry cleaning and rubbing were fairly good above 4 rating. Further study is needed to improve light fastness. It was concluded that the leaf powder colorant with deep freezing could be used as a substitute for traditional juice extract dyeing at all seasons.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.1963-1970
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• 2008

Natural indigo dye in powder form was prepared by modifying traditional Niram method, using $Ca(OH)_2$ instead of baked oyster powder for precipitating indigo dye. The prepared dye was applied to dyeing Tencel fabrics to investigate the effect of experimental conditions for the optimization of dyeing process. The indigo dye powder contained 15.2%(w/w) of indigo content and 0.757%(w/w) of indirubin content on the basis of HPLC analysis. Maximum dye uptake was obtained at $60^{\circ}C$ for 20min. Almost saturated dye uptake was obtained at 2g/L of sodium hydrosulfite concentration up to 4g/L of indigo dye and then slowly increased for further increase of sodium hydrosulfite. Whereas at higher indigo dye concentration(8g/L) more than 3g/L of reducing agent concentration was required for obtaining the maximum dye uptake. At the same indigo dye and reducing agent concentration, K/S value of the sample dyed without sodium hydroxide(pH 5.75) was 15.19, much higher than one dyed in alkaline condition(K/S 5.76). There was no difference in colorfastness ratings among samples with different color strength. However, more fading was occurred for the sample with low color strength.