40 liter Vat, Day 23 (Why Stir?)

rainy 20C / 60%
28C / ph11.2

smells more of ammonia again

Dyed 110x40(centimeter) linen
(guntai shibori) 5min / 2x

1 1/4 cup lime solution after dying

-The color sample swatch-

We hold a small piece of thin cotton fabric just under the surface of the dye for 30 seconds and rinse it immediately. This is done daily, when we also check temp and ph before dying and/or stirring. It's a helpful record to keep so you can see from day to day how the color is changing and also for future reference.

-The surface after stirred. (after dying)-

The vat must be stirred every day regardless of whether you dye with it or not. The bacteria needs oxygen to breathe in order to maintain healthy fermentation. If you do not stir it the bacteria will suffocate and your vat will die, leaving you with a bunch of smelly brown liquid. The idea is to bring the sludgy fermented leaf matter up from the bottom in a circular motion aerating and releasing the oxygen which forms bubbles on the surface called 'ai no hana' in Japanese. A good stirrer and a healthy pot will generate a nicely dome-shaped round of uniformed bubbles in the very center of the pot. As I stated earlier, square is hard to stir. We end up with a kind of deflated mass. This photo also shows the small, milky, greenish foam around our mis-shaped ai no hana. This sort of foam is not ideal. It shows a young vat that is fermenting a little too quickly. The 'hana' itself should have bigger bubbles and not look this foamy. The ammonia smell is also the sign of a newly fermenting vat. We were happy to have that smell when we were first setting up the pot but it should not be so strong at this stage. We added a cup more of the lime solution than we normally would after a dying session.