The Circular BLUE project proposes to grow and dye textile with Persicaria Tinctoria (Färber Knöterich/ Tade-Ai) in an urban community garden, Elisabeet in Soldiner Kiez, Berlin. The project experiments with a fermentation indigo vat: a dye-bath that uses bacteria to dye fabric with Indigo and a Sukumo color extraction: hot composting Persicaria leaves to get colors from the plants. The project is about implementing a sustainable and circular textile dye practice in an urban environment together with neighbors.
We grow dye plants in the soil. And the used-up dye bath is given back to the soil. This will be a fertilizer for the next cycle of growth. A “soil to soil” circular system for textile dye. The project is inspired by the indigo project from the Fibershed.org and their proposal for locally sourced and produced sustainable textile practice. We would like to produce a circular blue textile, made in Soldiner kiez.
What is NEW at the garden
- Mitmachtag
June 27 Warm sunny day. I did some new zucchini baby plant planting and a lot of weeding. There are already very big zucchini… Read More »Mitmachtag - Dyers Camomile
June 29 Last year, Madlen has planted a lot of Dyers Camomile and it is now blooming very nicely at the Elisabeet. It is… Read More »Dyers Camomile - Geschenk again!
we have a Geschenk/present again. Someone is very generous, but have temper to give it in very wild way. This time is a small… Read More »Geschenk again!
Workshops and Events
- Indigo Fermentation Vat – learning from an expert
On June 14 (Satruday) 13:00– at Elisabeet, Färbehütte We start our first Indigo Fermentation vat/ küpe/ dye-bath at Elisabeet. It will be taught by… Read More »Indigo Fermentation Vat – learning from an expert - Transferring Indigo Workshop
On May 23 14:00 – we meet at 14:00 at the Elisabeet. Workshop Leader: Melanie Mano from Ainisomatte. This week, we plan to transfer… Read More »Transferring Indigo Workshop - Cycle of Indigo Workshop
On May 9 14:00– at the Elisabeet, we will have our first online workshop with Melanie Mano from Ainisomatte. She will explain how she… Read More »Cycle of Indigo Workshop
Circular BLUE dream 1:
A natural dye color field full of Persicaria Tinctoria and other natural dye plants like Tagetes and Krapp. We can harvest colors locally and color our fabric!
Circular BLUE dream 2:
A Natural dye Färberei, a garden shed where natural Indigo dye-bath is located and ferment. Dying tools and materials are here and one can experiment with natural dye techniques. Hands-on workshops will also happen here.
You can join us on the Mitfärbetag on every Friday afternoon (15:00 – 19:00, time may change as the sun gets longer and shorter) at the Elisabeet. We will be planting and taking care of the Persicaria Tinctoria and other natural dye plants. It will be great if you “Do It Together” with us! When the fermentation vat is ready, you can also experiment with dyeing textile with indigo on the Mitfärbetag. The project team will be happy to show you how to work with it. There are no sign-ups. If you are interested, just come by!
Melanie from Ainisomatte, an indigo artisan in Japan will be giving us a series of online workshops (in English) and teach us: How to grow Persicaria Tinctoria, How to “build” indigo fermentation vat, and How to harvest and compost Persicaria Tinctoria to “Sukumo”. We will listen to her lecture online at the Elisabeet and apply what we learned at the field on the same day. Anyone with interest is invited to join us at the Elisabeet.
We plan to hold a few weekend hands-on workshops on the topic of Indigo fresh-leaf dye, Shibori dye with Indigo fermentation vat, Up-cycling with indigo dye, Weaving with indigo dyed yarn… and more. The date of the workshop and how to sign-up will be announced on this website soon.
Both the success and the failure of the project process will be documented at this website under process as an open source documentation.
Schedule 2025 Spring – Summer:
end March – April: Sowing Persicaria Tinctoria and growing seedlings in indoor location
May: Preparing “Natural Dye Gartenhaus”, Transplanting Persicaria Tinctoria seedlings to the field
June: Starting indigo fermentation vat, weeding, watering and taking care of the plants
July: 1st Harvesting, Fresh leaf Indigo Dye workshop, keeping the fermentation vat
August: weeding, watering, Shibori workshop, Up-cycle workshop, keeping the fermentation vat
September: 2nd Harvest, Starting “Sukumo” compost, Weaving with indigo yarn workshop
October: keeping “Sukumo” compost process, end of the fermentation vat
November: Sukumo is made for the next year’s dyeing
Elisabeet
Elisabeet is an urban community garden organized by a team from Elisabeet/ Himmelbeet gemeinnützige GmbH. Weekly on Friday afternoons volunteers gather and work to grow vegetables together as Mitmachtag. It is located at the backside of the Elisabeth II Friedhof.
The address of the Elisabeet garden is: Friedhof St. Elisabeth II, Wollankstr. 66, 13359 Berlin (Soldiner Kiez, Wedding)
You can enter either from the entrance on the Wollankstrasse or on the Freienwalder strasse (from Soldiner strasse). Please respect the rules of the Friedhof when you enter the premises. If you come with a bike, please walk with your bike when you enter the Friedhof.
The Circular Blue project operates with the Berlin Code of Conduct. We expect all community participants (contributors, paid or otherwise; sponsors; and other guests) to abide by this Code of Conduct in all community venues—online and in-person—as well as in all one-on-one communications pertaining to community business.
The project is funded for the period of April to September 2025 and realised within the framework of the VOICE project (https://voice-community.eu/) with support from the Horizon Programme of the European Union under grant number 101135803.
