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!

Monday, August 04, 2014

Hippie Heaven!

That is what it felt like up at Timmy's studio last weekend, when four of us got together and did some tie dyeing.  We were tutored and mentored by Lynn Dell, who is an awesome artist with the tie dyes.  I will let the pictures speak for themselves, can you tell our inner hippies had a blast??

 Our blues after washing them out.
 After rinsing on the lawn.  Most of these in the front are mine.
 Awesome chevron tapestry that Lynn Dell did!!  (With a thrift store sheet!)
 All our work spread out on the lawn after rinsing it out with the hose.
 Lisa pouring the dyes on one of her pieces.
 Lisa and Diane, Lisa is pouring on some dyes.
 My peace sign!  Every one of us managed to get a peace sign dyed!
 Lisa's peace sign, I think.
 Spiral shirts by Lynn Dell.
 Our 'reds' after washout.  The three shirts on the left are mine, Lynn Dell's peace sign shirt, my scarf, the rest are Lynn Dell's.
 Lisa's tapestry.  Love the colors!
 Diane's tapestry.
 A collaborative effort by me and Lisa.  I folded it, she did the dyes.  I love the movement it has.
 Lynn Dell's peace sign.  Amazing!
Lynn Dell's chevron tapestry.  It was huge!

We had a blast, and I learned some folds that I will be trying again.  Every weekend should be this much fun!