Dyeing: Gina's Results ...Finally!

 To use up the remaining dye I used a large foil baker as I had run out of containers for dyeing. I placed a layer of crunched fabrics in the bottom, poured the dyes over them trying to keep the colors somewhat separated. Then I layered more fabrics on top. The top layer I poked gently with a stick trying to allow some white spaces to remain. I don't think the aluminum container had any effect on the fabrics but the dye had an effect on the container. It appeared discolored on the bottom afterwards .... perhaps from the dyes or more likely the soda ash?   Thought I'd leave the feet in the photo!

Below are the two fabrics that were on top. I'm happy with the bits of white that separate the colors.

The fabrics on the bottom are darker with little or no white....

I'm not sure if the one above was in that pile or in a separate container.

Cups of tiny samples after a quick rinse, they are sitting in hot water with detergent. They sat for over a day but still need more washing. Too tiny makes for tough hand washing! They are just going into a notebook so they can run if they like ....

 A few of my favorites....... beer caps tied into the fabric below....

 Maybe not a favorite but a green .....

 Paperclips....

 More paper clips.....

 The over-dyes ..... the lime green is actually more green than what shows in the photo.

 The fabric tied onto the pvc pipe.....

 Just another blue....

Traditional tie-dye....

 Folded and tied with just black dye....

Colorfast Hand Dyed Fabrics

See Vicki Welsh's blogpost here  - her process for getting all the excess dye from the handdyes she sells.

"Briefly, my process (after first rinsing excess dye/soda ash) involves soaking the fabrics overnight in hot water with Synthrapol (or other detergent) instead of repeated wash and rinse cycles. My experience tells me that the long exposure to water is better at leaching out all of the excess dyes than repreated washign and rinsing."

 "... the water is very dark after 12 hours and that may worry some people. As long as all of the fabric is submerged under water AND you have detergent in the water (I use about 1/8 - 1/4 cup for about 10 yards of fabric), the dyes will not reattach to other fabrics. I rinse bright yellow and pastels with every other color and have never had a problem."



Steam iron releases dye onto cotton for poorly processed pieces

Overdyes processed with Vicki's technique - no dyes released with steam iron

See here, too, for more on the process.

dyes released in water after measured soak times - shows longer soaks release more excess dyes

(I'll be reprocessing my fabrics today!)

...all photos from Vicki's blog...

dyeing - Belinda's results

Dyeing - Jackie's results...

cotton embroidered tray cloth

linen embroidered bag

decrepit embroidered cotton hankie

1/2 heavy linen pillowcase

the other 1/2 linen pillowcase

bit o' everything

love this trim

More bit o' everything

Mildly blotchy rayon scarf

Boca Prayer Flags

Here are my washed pieces. The deep purple silk piece (now a maroonish) is on the lowest rung laying on a piece of linen, the fuschia scarf is exactly that even though I thought I used the other red;  the kinda streaky one turned out pretty much like I had hoped! The reds are still running a little bit - hoping for some real rain.

Dye (fabric coloring) Day - jackie's - May 15

I succumbed to a subscription - Fiber Art Now.

And in exploring the site

got lost exploring their list of Fiber Greats

Especially today Katherine Cobey

and her sculptural knitting.

Rowland and Chinami Ricketts - Indigo artists/farmers

Rowland Ricketts



Chinami Ricketts

I meant to link this up awhile ago - their site is a little glitchy. If you can get to it the process of farming indigo, processing it then dyeing is quite involved.

Their art is gorgeous!