Saturday 14 June 2014

More Dyeing

Following on from the dyeing I showed here recently I've had another dyeing day with friends.  We had the luxury of using Wendy's studio and she even mixed the dyes for us.  We had a great time and came home with lots of fabrics to rinse out.  You may well know that I don't like flat colour so I mangled, scrunched, crushed, twisted, knotted and tied my fabrics to make it hard for the dye to reach every fibre.

The cat litter tray had pleated cotton, silk and scrim in it and I draped another piece of scrim into it from the jug which contained a pipe with fabric scrunched round it with string.  I ended up with a two toned length of scrim just right for a sea scene.

This was the piece tied and scrunched round the plastic pipe and has come out a bit paler than I expected but I love the wave-like marks.  I would love to do this with a large piece of fabric but would have to engage the help of my glamorous assistant (last seen rinsing fabric) to scrunch the fabric down.  I think I saw a suitable length of drainage pipe behind the shed  but I'll need a big enough bucket to immerse the fabric in.  I wonder what a rain butt looks like with dye in it?!  I usually use 1 teaspoon of dye to 100ml of water.  How many millilitres would there be in a butt?  Maybe I need to think about that again ;-)



The images above are the fabric from the jar which is one long piece.  The colours are a little brighter in reality.


These two, above and below, are from the litter tray.  I wish you could see how gorgeous the silk is, I wish I'd dyed a larger piece.
 


I am really pleased with the piece above.  I wrapped a length of cotton fabric around a washing line which I pulled tightly and tied so it looked like a doughnut,  and then put it in a plastic bag with 'warm black' dye.  I am not sure whether the dye has split or whether the yellow has come from the rope.


I tied the corners of the piece above in knots and scrunched and wrapped random areas with elastic bands (tie-dyed). 

I've been enjoying all the dyeing I've been doing lately and, along with some bought fabrics, I can feel a quilt coming on.


7 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my!!! marvelous effects on all of them. I'm beginning to think about dyeing again. thanks for the inspiration! xox

Wendy said...

I am in love with thr rope dyed fabric :) the silk is sumptuous we need to dye some scarves

Unknown said...

You have some great pieces there Julie, look forward to seeing what you do with them.

Peneller said...

What fun you've been having and the results are lovely. Can't wait to see what you make with all this lovely fabric! xxx

Heather said...

You've got some wonderful effects in these dyed fabrics, and I look forward to seeing how you make use of them.

Sandra Wyman said...

Really like these Julie - now looking forward to seeing what you make with them! Or I suppose you could just stroke and admire them, which is probably what I would do!

Maggi said...

Definitely drooling. You might want to try one of those wallpaper trays that they soak the paper in for your pole dyeing. It doesn't need a lot of dye although I do tend to turn the tube to get a more even coverage at the beginning. Having said that, if you don't you get a lovely darker patterning in one area which ends up looking a bit like an horizon.