Friday, August 22, 2014

Color is my Therapy

I have been playing in the dyes again, and even tried something new.  I should have plenty of fabric to create with this winter, and I'm hoping for a few more dye days before the snow flies.

Inspired by Lisa, who sent us each a piece of hand dyed fabric to use in the latest Tangled Textiles challenge, I spent a day doing flat gradation dyeing.  Some turned out better than others, but I'll use every one.






I don't know how that blue got on what was supposed to be a gray gradation.  I'm guessing that one of my plastic sheets between the fabric was too short, and the blue went where it could!  

I also threw some soda soaked fabric in the drip bins, and got some beauties.


Love the markings on these, especially the one on the right!

I'm am still ruminating on how I will use these- and I know a couple of other projects will get started before any of these.

Today I tried something totally new for me- indigo dyeing!  I'd bought a kit from Dharma a few months ago, and finally mixed it up today.  I had a tee folded to make a chevron, and a silk scarf that was already dyed lime green.  I just twisted that up and bound it with rubber bands.

I dipped the tee twice, allowing it to oxidize for twenty minutes between dips.  It comes out of the vat looking like this. . 

and a few minutes later looks like this. . . 

Twenty minutes later, it looked like this. . . 


At this point, I undid the rubber bands, and laid it out on my rack to let the the shirt fully oxidize.  Here it is, you can still see a bit of green.


Now it just needs to be rinsed and washed, and we'll see how dark the blue is.  Can't wait!  I'll also be getting some other stuff to dye, even if it is half yard pieces of fabric.  I want to dye while the vat is active!

5 comments:

Vicki W said...

You made some beautiful pieces! I like the blue on the gray piece. That's got lots of possibilio!

Renate said...

Oooo! Those are scrumptious pieces Beverly. I really like the way the T-shirt came out.

What Comes Next? said...

such beautiful pieces of fabric - nice job! I did a quick little indigo workshop today, too. I just love watching the magic happen as it oxidizes! your t-shirt looks cool!

Gina said...

Fun gradations and your t-shirt turned out great! Some friends and I got hooked on indigo this spring and I'm looking forward to getting back to it this winter.

JB said...

So much lovely fabric!