Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Weekend Dyefest

I'm finding it harder to blog on weekends, because I'm spending more time in the studio creating.  That's what the studio is for, right?  Last weekend I decided it was high time I used up some dye solutions I've had in the studio frig for a few months.  I also decided I wasn't going to mess around with fat quarters- I dyed half-yard pieces or larger.  I need to start making a dent in the 75 yards of PFD I bought last year when the price of cotton started rising.

I had no plan, no idea of what colors I'd end up doing.  I just wanted to use up the dyes, which were mostly primaries in the three color families Carol Soderlund teaches in her beginning dye class.  Here's an overview of a lot of what I ended up with.


Then some blues, and a color parfait using two yellows on the first two fabrics, and a blue on top.  I do love my greens!!

 The blue with red on the left looks much better in person than it does in the photo.  I was glad to get a red that wasn't fuschia!


These are going to be overdyed- the two on the left have already spent the night in a bucket of turquoise dye.


I also fanfolded three pieces of fabric and put them in the same tray container.  Each piece got a different blue on it, then I flooded the bottom with fuschia.  I liked what happened.

I like the texture I got on these, and think I will be doing more fan-folding and less scrunching in the future.  I already have lots of yardage with the scrunch texture.

My hands-down favorites are these two spirals.

The one on the right was originally more lime green with purple, but I got impatient and rinsed and washed it before the turquoise dye had been on the cloth for 24 hours.  So, it turned out to be more acid yellow, and a lesson in patience for me.  

I was successful in using up most of the dyes in the frig, I only have a bit of a couple of colors left.  I've got a length of cotton knit soaking in one bucket now, waiting to be washed out, and the two that have been overdyed in turquoise.  I still have to figure out what I'm doing with the other one, that turned into insipid yellow and puke green.

All in all, a very good weekend in the dyepots!

6 comments:

What Comes Next? said...

I would say it was a very successful dyeing session! I really like those spirals, too - how did you do them?
I t will be interesting to see how the turquoise overdyeing affects those two pieces. What would a red over dye look like on the yellow one? would you get an orange and brown combination

Judy Warner said...

The spirals are magical! And, I love the effect of the fan folding. You should have a wonderful time using these in projects.

Debra Dixon said...

I like everyone of them!!

Renate said...

Those are wonderful pieces Beverly. I like the colours in the fan fold pieces. Someday I'd like to be able to do some dyeing, but I'd prefer to take a class from someone with a bit more expertise that me.

Lynda said...

Beverly, Wow! These are absolutely beautiful!

Gina said...

Beautiful! And such rich colors from dyes you had kept. Did you stitch your spirals? They are really cool as are all of them!