Shibori and indigo

I took a class yesterday, in Oakland, at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Lots of fun, a bit messy, but I have something to show for - unlike the class I took a month ago. And that project is almost finished, the handwork, anyway. But that's for another post, hopefully soon.
Anyway, back to yesterday's class - shibori and indigo dyeing. I keep seeing examples of other people's dyework and just loved it. I've taken a dyeing class before, but it wasn't about natural dyes. So, when I got the email about this class, I signed up immediately. Glad I did. Here is what I managed to do in class:

 My first piece, pretty time consuming and requiring the use of many, many needles. All stitched and gathered along the way. The fabric is beige linen. Took me ages to get all the threads out and even longer to carefully cut out the knots at the end of each row of stitches.

 After that first piece, I wanted something a little easier and just tied little bits of fabric to get sort of dots. I think this one is my favorite. This one started out as plain, white cotton fabric.

 This one was another simple tying process. I just pleated the fabric and tied it at intervals. It worked. Same fabric as above.

I call this one my "quick and dirty" piece. I had extra fabric, there was time, so I tied and dipped. I think this piece was only dipped twice, the others 3 or 4 times.
I ended up with bluish nails and managed to drip a bit of blue water on my feet. Well worth it. I ordered indigo plant seeds today, I'll try growing my own, for a slightly different process. Let's see how that goes.