A recent comment from neki rivera (neki desu) at A Moveable Feast got me looking for info on sukomo (composted indigo) and I came across this site which had somehow escaped my notice. There is a great section on indigo farming and indigo vat preparation using sukomo. Looks like they are giving a talk at the upcoming conference (SDA) in June of 2009.
If you search Flickr for images of indigo you will come across several of "indigo hands"-.