After spending five days learning from Carol Soderlund, I think I can now say I've been granted a set of keys to the Kingdom Where the Colors are Made. My brain is spinning, there was so much to take it and so many ideas!! I will be purging the dye studio of all my measuring cups and spoons; my dye colors will only be measured with my nifty little digital scale. And as my dye colors are used up, I won't have to replace all of them; I'm betting I'll have ten to twelve colors at most. Think of the space I'll be gaining!!
One of my classmates was another member of the MX Dyers Yahoo Group. It was so much fun getting to know Cherie! I got to see some fabric she did as a part of the Ugly Cloth challenge, and it was gorgeous. Here we are on the last day of class with Carol, who's holding the Color Bible that we all now have. Mine is on-third put together, and I hope to finish it by the end of next week.
Carol is a fantastic teacher- generous with her time and knowledge, and just plain nice. We've already asked her to come back next year to teach Color Mixing 2.
I only dyed a couple of half-yard pieces as part of an exercise, but learned a lot from that and from watching what others were doing. On the last afternoon, we looked at everyone's fabric and talked about the variables that contributed to the differences. Here I am with Carol, holding my two pieces. (Ignore the fact that my eyes are shut in the picture, please!)
Would you believe that both pieces were dyed with the exact same color? True! The one on the left was done with a pale value, flag folded. I poured the dye on dry fabric, and added the soda ash after the dye color. It is a lovely shade of lavender, with marks where the fabric was folded.
The second was done with a medium dark value of that color, but it was soda soaked first, and the color added to wet fabric. What a difference! The red struck quickly, but the blue poked along, and finally bonded in the white areas of the fabric. You can also see green where the blue and yellow mixed.
What does this mean? I can now control the effects I get on my hand dyes, by understanding what process produces what result. This was only one of the many pieces of dye wisdom I acquired this week. Some of the others, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the possibilities.
7 comments:
I bet that was a lot to absorb (pun intended!)I think I need to take a comprehensive class like this to understand what to do. I'm going to watch for some new ideas coming from your experiences.
That was very interesting about the two pieces dyed with the same color. Thanks for sharing--can't wait to see what you make after your head stops spinning.
It's great to see how excited you are about this, and to see the good picture. The digital scale thing is what jumped at me. I use one in the kitchen, and it's wonderful, so I can see how it would be life changing for something that needs the precision of dyeing.
That was amazing seeing those two fabrics side by side. It is fantastic that you have taken this class. Quick finish your grocery shopping so we can see what you come up with!
Sounds like a fabulous workshop! What a great resource you'll have with your finished binder .... plus all those tips you've learned!
Beverly sounds like you had so much fun! and what a "tool" you will have when your dye bible is completed. Would love to have been able to attend such a workshop.
I keep considering whether a class with Carol is something I really want to do...I've seen the color bible and WOWZA! I am most impressed. Will you reference in the future in your blog posts when you are actually using the book as reference when you dye?
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