‘I feel naked without my blue hands’: Felix Nai, indigo dye craftsman in Singapore

His inky blue stained hands and nails are the first thing most people notice about Felix Nai. Some might mistake it for a manicure, but this is in fact the result of his work as a indigo dye craftsman, which requires him to immerse his hands into vats of dye when colouring textiles.

“I feel naked without my blue hands; it is a good conversation starter. It also acts like my name card,” said the 30-year-old Nai. “I see myself as an artisan who grows a colour and tries to preserve this craft in a fast-paced world.”

For Nai, indigo dyeing is not just a profession; it is a journey into the secrets of nature and a way to promote a more sustainable future in the fashion industry.

He grows and farms his own indigo plants and uses the century-old method of lye fermentation to activate the micro-organisms that create the liquid indigo dye from the leaves of the plants. This dye is then used to stain fabrics.

It all began in 2014 when he stumbled upon a workshop led by traditional Japanese indigo craftsmen. Entranced by the depth and richness of indigo hues, he felt a calling to learn more about this ancient art form. So, he made frequent visits to Japan to keep in touch with the artisans and to find out more about indigo dyeing.

“I flew in at different times of the year, just to see how they practise their craft in different seasons. I helped with their work to understand a bit more about natural indigo,” he said.

Nai ultimately moved to Kamikatsu, a zero-waste town in Japan for two years to learn the craft from one of the last remaining dye artisans Kenta Watanabe. His time as an apprentice allowed him to gain even deeper insights into the value of indigo dyeing.

“I started to see the world through the lens of indigo. It has existed for hundreds of years and the one thing that has not changed is how interconnected it is to nature and people,” he observed.

When the pandemic struck, Nai made the decision to return to Singapore to share the skills and knowledge he had learned from the craftsmen in Japan. He now also cultivates an indigo plant species called Persicaria Tinctoria in Singapore, a laborious process that takes a year to grow and prepare the leaves for extracting the dye.

While there are other indigo dye craftsmen with different practices, he believes he is the only indigo farmer in Singapore. “Land scarcity is one of the problems and I cannot farm enough at one go. However, I have found different spots for the plants, and I am grateful to those who shared this opportunity with me. My aim is to localise my ingredients and to be self-sustainable in my craft,” he said.

It takes 350kg of dried leaves to produce a batch of dye. The leaves are fermented in large vats for two weeks, during which the temperature and pH value are monitored closely. “Only at the optimum conditions will the colour give birth, so I call these two weeks the ‘pregnancy phase’,” said Nai.

“I feel like there is an emotional bond between the dye vat and myself, like I am a parent to the dye solution.”

As the dye is safe to touch with bare hands, Nai does not wear gloves when he dyes fabrics so that he can feel the material. Some of the techniques artisans use to achieve one of a kind patterns on the textiles include folding, tying and clamping.

Due to the natural fermentation and extraction process, each batch of dye is different, giving rise to unique results every time he works on a new bath. The shade of indigo achieved also depends on the material used and the number of times it is dipped in colour. It takes multiple rounds of dyeing to “stack the colour” to achieve the deep, dark blue that is typical of indigo-dyed fabric.

Nai was mesmerised about fabric manipulation when he studied fashion design at Temasek Polytechnic, a module he admitted was the most memorable for him. Even as a student, he recalls being very opinionated about the concepts and techniques he wanted to pursue, a quality he continues to uphold till this day.

Vani Rajandran, deputy director of the School of Design at Temasek Polytechnic, was his former teacher and remains a good friend and life-coach to Nai today. She said: “Felix has a very clear sense of purpose and direction as one of the very few artisans in the field of indigo dyeing. Not many people are exploring this niche area in Singapore, and he was willing to do something uncharted.”

In contrast to the trend for fast fashion these days, Nai is championing sustainability through his business which focuses on using indigo as a mode of repair by dying over old fabrics to give them a new lease of life.

In addition, indigo dye is a more sustainable medium compared to chemical alternatives. Vani observed: “We all talk about how the fashion sector is the second largest polluter so every small step counts. He has taken that small step to offer an ecological choice for the textile industry as natural dye uses less water, less energy and is a sustainable, renewable source.”

While he hopes to play a role in preserving this craft, he also has big plans for the future. He said, “I would like to progress my practice further, to be more like a designer craftsman where I can explore a range of work and experiment with more mediums and different patterns. I hope to venture into working with daily items like furniture and I have always had an interest in bio-materials,” he said

“At the end of the day, I would like for all the products I work with to be returned back to the ground.”