LIU’S FINGERS ARE STAINED INDIGO FROM YEARS SPENT WORKING WITH BLUE GRASS

[there] learns how to dye with blue grass and make clothes. It is the way to tell if she has nimble hands,” Liu says.

To make indigo dye, Liu lets blue grasses gradually ferment in a huge vat until they form a sediment that looks like indigo clay. Whenever she needs to dye, she takes out some clay and mixes it with water in the vat. The trick is to add rice wine in the morning to “wake up” the bacteria. Since the liquor is acidic, plant ashes persimmons, believing they have more “natural energy” than ripe ones. The dye is prepared the previous year, as green persimmons take over a year to ferment. “[Persimmon dye] is called ‘sun dye,’ as the sun paints a warm orange tint to the fabric and gives the soft fabric a hard leather texture,” Liu explains. “The more you use it [the cloth], the better quality the texture will be.”

Persimmon dyeing is a perfect demonstration of the surprising