Parfait time. Not with calories, but an exercise from Ann Johnston's book, Color by Accident. Using a plastic pretzel barrel container, I began by pouring sun yellow dye solution on one piece of fabric.
After that batched for a while, I poured soda ash as fixative, waited just a bit, then scrunched a second piece of fabric on top and added mixing red dye solution.
After waiting a bit, it was time for more soda ash, then turquoise dye solution and a final dose of soda ash. I let it batch for a few hours before rinsing and rinsing. Nice. I want to repeat this with another trio of dyes.
My last piece for Week Three was an ice dye. I used a set-up that I saw somewhere on the internet using a plastic colander to hold the fabric, ice and dyes placed in a large bowl. This works best for smaller pieces of fabric. I used kelly green, cobalt blue, strong orange and violet. Looks lovely.
Ice dyes usually surprise me in nice ways. The next time I repeat this, I'll take a photo of the set-up.
Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you want to try.
Karen
Already, I am posting a bit late. Sorry, family issues needed attention. All is better now. Back to the dyeing adventures.
A few years ago, while in Oregon, I bought some potato dextrin to use as a resist. Finally, I dug it out and tried on two pieces. They are okay first tries with this resist.
The first piece was from Week One using thin yellow and blue dyes on wet soda ash fabric - not exciting. I mixed the potato dextrin using a recipe and spread it on the fabric to dry overnight. Didn't quite work. A thicker batch of resist would have cracked as it dried. I had to twist and crumble this piece to get breaks in the resist. I brushed on a medium print paste with indigo dye and let it dry overnight. I got some texture!
The second piece was white fabric previously soaked in soda ash and dried. I used an edged tool to scrape lines in the wet resist. After drying overnight, I brushed on medium thick indigo mixture and let it dry. Next day, I soaked the fabrics to remove the resist - that was the easiest step. I will repeat this technique with a thicker mixture of resist and one day try a flour resist.
Here I mixed a "thin" mixture (dye concentrate and urea water) and applied it, leaving white areas, with sponge brushes on damp soda ash soaked fabric. The dye mixture spread and created nice shapes and textures.
I used thin dye mixture here, but on dry soda ash soaked fabric. Okay, but not quite what I hoped it would be. I can always print on top of this. Hmmm.
All of these examples were created using exercises in Ann Johnston's book, Color by Design. This is why we practice again and again, often by mistakes. I just love messing about with fabrics and dyes.
More to come.
Thanks for visiting. Karen
In Week Two, I took my 'blahs' from Week One and played with them.
This was first dyed flat in a shoebox by squirting turquoise and sun yellow all around. It was okay-ish, but not enough texture. So ...
I decorated it with Elmer's blue gel glue and let it dry. I did shapes, squiggles, letters and dots and lines. It took a while to cover this 12" x 21" piece of fabric. Actually it became rather meditative. It took a good while to dry.
I brushed on thickened indigo dye (dye with print paste) and let it dry. After drying and rinsing, I got more texture and interesting shapes. Nice, but I need to run it through the washer to get the rest of the glue out.
Number 3 started as an ice dye. I expected interesting results just like all my ice dyes in the past. However, it came out quite blah. The dye powder may have been too old, who knows. So I scrunched it into a stocking toe and steeped it in indigo dye.
I am happier with the results - more texture and actually more green than this photo (the camera insisted on blue.) I have been working on greens to take to an October workshop with Susan Carlson.
This one started folded up and bound with rubber bands in turquoise dye. After a bit, I unfolded it and folded it differently, then poured on sun yellow dye and waited. Not at all what I hoped for. A bit boring. This may have been a subconscious piece -- I have been dealing with some neck problems this year and going to physical therapy. Some of these shapes remind me of my vertebrae that are suffering with arthritis.
Thanks for reading. More to come.
Karen
Yes, it's been a long time between postings. I hope to be more attentive in this new year -- my new year. Ten days ago, I celebrated my 70th birthday, complete with purple hair.
It was temporary and I have a lot of the stuff, so I can experiment more. It was interesting how many strangers came up to me with compliments. Fun, fun, fun - which is what birthdays should be.
As I was reviewing my life and thinking what is next, I decided I needed a project that could run throughout this new year. "70 and Counting" was born. My intention with this project is to create at least 70 unique pieces of fabric through dyeing, printing, discharging, overdyeing and all other methods I can play with. My intention is to document all my efforts and to blog twice a week. One reason for this effort is to use the many techniques that I have tried or learned in classes or read about in books and magazines. You might know the routine: take a class, get all excited with the learning process, return to reality where life crowds our time. So, as one of my chocolate wrappers says "What are you waiting for?" Here I go.
In Week One, I focused on greens using turquoise and sun yellow, dyeing four small pieces, 12" x 21". One, an arashi wrap on a medium pole, turned out nicely. The other three turned out weak and boring - to be addressed in Week Two. I feel a bit out of practice with these dyes.
More later this week. Yes, I realize that a lot needs updating on this blog -- soon. Enjoy the lovely September weather.
Karen
Parfait time. Not with calories, but an exercise from Ann Johnston's book, Color by Accident. Using a plastic pretzel barrel container, I began by pouring sun yellow dye solution on one piece of fabric. 
