fiberhart

It Was the Blue, Dufus!!

The second attempt at the teal came out pretty much like the first- green! So the orange overdye didn't make a dent in the color on the first pieces I dyed. Here's the third attempt to get teal, drying on my Ikea rack-



That big spot of blue? I'm guessing it is where I poured on the soda ash solution.

Having decided that impatience was at the root of my issues, I thought about all the variables last night. The blue I used is a mixed blue from ProChem that a friend gave me a few years ago. I don't think I've ever used it on its own, so I have no idea how dark it can get. My guess is not very, since none of the pieces were particularly dark, and they should have been with the dye solutions I used.

I'm out of Cerulean blue, and probably won't put in an order to Dharma for a week or two. So I went back to my dye book- and found a swatch of cobalt blue and lemon yellow, on the Kona muslin even, that was reasonably close to what I want. The more I thought, though, the more I want to go get a yard of Kona cotton tomorrow, and try with that. For some reason, I just like the texture it added to this piece. And, I know I can get dark values with the cobalt dye.

In the meantime, having nothing to lose, I decided to overdye the green with straight cobalt dye. It's batching outside now- I'll probably wait til tomorrow to wash it out.

Having come to a standstill on the larger piece due in September, I went back to the small piece to be mounted on canvas. I bought a starter set of acrylic paints, even got to use a 40% off coupon from JoAnn's at Michael's. First I played on some watercolor paper, trying to see what colors I could get. I learned I'll use lots of yellow, I'll be getting a single tube of that. Then I painted the lime green I came up with on the canvas, using a foam brush. I just liked the texture that gave!



I checked it this morning, after all had dried. Wow, that green is IN YOUR FACE!! Having read in a book I checked out of the library that I can overpaint the color with another thin layer to tone it down, I mixed a pale gray, then mixed that with my glossy gel medium. I tried to stay with the texture I got yesterday. And yes, the gray did knock it back a bit.



There's a reason we ordered three canvases each!! I am thinking, however, of using this for a collage with more dryer sheets, adhered with the gel medium. Like the green fabric, I figure I have nothing to lose!!

Stay posted for the continuing saga of "Bev will get this teal fabric or dye trying!!"