Category: Dyeworks

Did you know I originally started blogging to keep a journal of my projects? I suppose it still is a place to keep track of projects and musings and jottings, more for my own use than anything else.  So much better than bits of paper here and there, or the frustrations of lost notebooks.

This means, of course, that this is also a good place to record those bits and bobs that I might otherwise misplace, such as this photo of a fabric dyed by one of my classmates.  The dark lines are caused by the string that was used to wrap the fabric; it bleed into the fabric while in the dye bath.  This strikes me as something that has all kinds of possibilities for future explorations.

Next up the remainder of my projects, possibly unfinished, possibly not.  This first one is unfinished.  It is silk crepe de chine, wrapped, and painted with a weak solution of cerulean blue. I intentionally wanted it to be light, to be the first stage of a multi-step process, but that was as far as I got during the workshop.  I've been thinking I will wrap it again in a different direction and dye it in a related mid-strength color.  There may be a third process as well, but I am still playing with possibilities in my imagination.  I am willing to let this percolate in my imagination a little bit before proceeding.

The last two pieces were experiments in immersion dyeing, which was explained as being similar to the vat dyeing we had done.  The main exception seemed to be that the fabric was not stirred to insure even dye absorption, and different effects could be achieved by knotting and tying, or by adding dye to the water at different stages of the immersion process.

Lana and I each dyed two pieces of fabric.  The top one was Liana's in a pot of light green (I forgot the color) with some blue added in later.  I also believe the fabric was knotted.  The second pieces was my dye vat.  I used 8 parts lemon yellow to 2 parts fuchsia red, with the tiniest pinch of warm black.  Then, later in the dyeing process I sprinkled in a little more fuchsia and another pinch of black, letting the dry powder dissolve into the bath at its own pace.

Both of these fabrics could be used as they are, or they could be the first step in a multi-step process.  I think a lot would depend on what I wanted to do with the pieces next, and I'm ok with the rather open-endedness nature of dyeing.  If I've learned nothing else, I've learned to trust the process, to leave things be and let ideas evolve.  What is the worst that can happen? A bit of wasted fabric, a little effort applied to learning rather than a finished something? A slow start doesn't imply a wasted effort; beauty arises out of iteration.

And back to dyeing.  I need to record what I did, what I thought.  Have patience.

The third technique we learned on that first day of dye class was how to mix and stabilize dye for hand painting.  My initial thoughts were mixed.  When I imagine hand-painted fabric, I tend to imagine beautifully detailed flowers and designs, but of course we weren't talking about that kind of painting.  Big relief.  My skills at drawing are pretty close to nil.  But I was tired, and had fabric to spare, so figured I should give it a try.

Three of us spread out some plastic on a table and got to work.  Liana and I were both working on the linen/cotton blend, and using crimson red and cobalt blue dyes.  Liana found a muse in abstract expressionism, but I was not so daring, seeking more discrete shapes.  I made wide brushstrokes with the red, and tried to make swirling lines and curlicues with the blue paint. Frankly I wasn't too happy with my results. Inspired by my more creative classmates I decided a third color was needed, I dipped the end of a stirring stick in lemon yellow paint and flicked it over the fabric, creating random dots and splotches.  Then I folded the fabric in plastic and left it cure overnight.

Exhausted as I was, I still lay awake fretting over what to do next far too long on Thursday night, finally deciding wrap the fabric tightly for to Arashi Shibori and overdue it with black.  However, while I was wrapping my fabric another classmate was painting with a watered-down black that was close to a deep charcoal gray, and I decided to use the gray dye to paint the edges of my fabric rather than submerging it in dye.

I rather like the results, although as you can see, there was not enough dye to soak into the innermost layer of fabric, so only 2/3 of the fabric shows much pattern from the dye.  I am still perhaps more attracted the random  patterning on Liana's fabric (right), but think there is room for further exploration here, perhaps in a combination of random and control patterning using multiple techniques. 

I particularly like the way the string has created a texture in the fabric.  I know it will wash out when I wash the fabric, and I know I need to wash it to rinse out the any excess dye, but I am reluctant to do so at this point.  I am wondering if the fabric is useable now, without washing, or if I need to just get over it and move on.

 But even without the texture I love the way the colors are blurred together. For the moment I am happy to leave it just as it is. 

Have you wondered what happened to the fabric that I teased you with last week?

Liana and I wanted to dye our fabric green, but we wanted a green that was a bit on the cooler side and not to yellow.  (Ours are the aqua pieces in the photo above.). We calculated that we needed 1.2 grams of dye for the weight of our fabric.  And we felt that the seafoam green was too pale and perhaps not blue enough.  Truthfully I don't remember our rationale, I only recorded the formula we used, not the reasoning behind it. So we used 1 gram of seafoam, and .2 gram of turquoise.   I don't believe that we realized the turquoise was quite as intense as it proved to be, or as blue.  It is really a pure clear blue.  As we mixed our dye bath, we realized it was far more blue than we desired, so we added .3 grams of lemon yellow before adding the fabric. 

Although the resulting fabric was not quite what we were aiming for, I do like the results of our initial experiment.  It is a color I wear even though a more muted shade might be preferable.  In fact we both prefer more muted shades, which means we will be experimenting further with mixing our own colors, rather than working with the pure dyes.

But what to do next?  Friday morning's class started with a few examples of different dye techniques and a lesson in folding and clamping.  I was thrilled to see that the myriad possibilities offered by a box of clamps that is still sitting in my garage, unused since my move. 

We decided to fold or knot and clamp our turquoise fabric and dye it again, this time in pure yellow.  Unfortunately I failed to take pictures of the process.  I folded my fabric in fourths along the length of the fabric and then tied a simple knot at each end.  Then I wrapped small rubber bands at the edges of the fabric, beyond the knots, making small bunny ears.  In the middle of the fabric I used washers to create a ring shape, anchoring them firmly with two clamps.  I really didn't have a plan, I was just experimenting, which as you will see, seems to pretty much have been my consistent method.  Although others were more methodical, my own technique was more playful and spontaneous.

After the fabric  came out of the dye bath,  I used some cobalt blue to paint around the washers before I removed them, and to dab bits of blue along the folds of the knots and rubber bands.  Above are our fabrics after rinsing, hanging to dry.  The turquoise is the original color, the green was where the additional yellow soaked into the fabric, and on mine, the front piece, you can see the bits of blue.  Below is the final piece after it came home.

I love this piece, but I don't really know what I will do with it.  The piece is too short and wide to make a useful scarf, and the linen/cotton fabric is also bulky and a bit stiff.  But I see potential here for future designs, and possibly even a scarf, although silk will take the dye differently.  Certainly, I am pleased enough, and thrilled enough by the possibilities, that visions of future dye experiments are dancing in my head.