fiberhart

Silk Scarf Dyeing

I stayed up later than normal last night, but I got the studio cleaned, and all the scarves washed and hung to dry. Here they are, ironed.



The yellow one on the left went through a couple of dyebaths, the second to try to fix a disaster that happened in the washout. I think it worked. Then I used a Pearl Ex stamp pad with a couple of stamps, one I carved, and one commercial. The blue one I discharged, using a thermofax screen of rocks that I photoshopped. Love how this one came out. The green one is also discharged, using a thermofax screen. It's supposed to be a frog in a triangle, but it didn't come out that clear. The turquoise one I used a thermofax screen of a page from my great-grandmother's high school graduation essay, with gray thickened dye. The last one is just blue- I did try a couple of stamps on it, but they didn't work. So I may go back in on this one.



These are the wild ones! The ones in the center and on the right I first dyed a pale value color, then shibori wrapped them and dyed a second, darker color. I learned I will have to find a longer length of PVC for wrapping, I don't like the horizontal lines I got where it overlapped. But otherwise, I'm happy with these. The one on the left is almost comical. It was a bright turquoise I'd actually dyed a few months ago, on a silk chiffon. I wanted to tone down the turquoise a bit, so I figured an overdye in orange would do the trick. Unfortunately, I used too strong a dye solution, and ended up with mostly brown. Last night I figured I had nothing to lose by discharging it, so I screened a pattern I got from a bench in my sister's back yard. And this is what I got, I think I like it!



These last two are a puzzlement, although I do like them both. Both were dyed a pale shade of ecru. One I twisted tightly, applied thickened,activated burgundy dye, and nuked. The other I screened with that same thickened, activated burgundy dye, and then steamed. Look at the difference in color!! I've had good success steaming with discharge paste, and not so good steaming my dyes. For the life of me, I don't know what I am doing wrong. Anybody has any ideas, I'd love to know what to do to steam dyes successfully!

That's it for dyeing for this weekend. I'm going to try to finish the blouse I started, and sandwich Blue Tsunami. The rest of the two dozen scarves I ordered will have to wait for another weekend.