fiberhart

Procrastinating (or not!)

I can be a procrastinator, especially when I'm feeling anxious.  And, I will be the first to admit that the March photo has raised my anxiety level.

I had plans to jump in and try one idea, see if I could pull it off.  My studio was a disaster this morning- I'd never cleaned up from the snow dyeing I did a couple of weeks ago.  So I had to clean the wet studio so I'd have a place to work.

We woke up to a good six-plus inches of snow this morning.  I still had dyes in the frig, couldn't let this go to waste!  So I hurried and soda soaked some fabric, and got five containers of fabric batching.  It warmed up quickly today, the snow was melted and I had them under the lights by afternoon.  I dumped dyes on these- parfait snow dyeing!

 

The'll spend the night under the heat lamps, then I'll wash them out in the morning.

I really did try my first idea- or at least the first idea that's made it as far as fabric.  The first couple were ok, although not thrilling.  The third was laughable- so I decided this idea just wasn't going to fly.

So, following another muse- I cut some black fabric from the stash and started some discharging tests.  It is unreal how different results can be from one bolt to the next, there is no predictability whatsoever!

 

 

This is all the same fabric, black sateen.  The top one is discharge paste- it looks green.  The bottom left is bleach, with the top at full strength and the bottom 50% diluted with water.  The bottom right is dishwasher gel with bleach.  None of those gave me the results I wanted.

I was thinking of hitting the fabric store to get a different black, then decided to cut a piece off another length of sateen that I'd bought-different time, different bolt.  The two little pieces in the middle are from that and what a difference!  The left is full strength bleach, the right is the dishwasher gel.  I've discharged a lot of black, but I've never gotten this color before.  I could have stopped the bleaching action sooner, and it looks red.  It looks fabulous!

So now I'm going off in a totally different direction- but I think it will be much more 'me'.  Maybe later in the month I'll show you the reject!