3/21/2014 Gelli and Paste Papers at Belinda's

In South Florida where we live, we are able to utilize our outdoor space in the winter or summer for drying our painted creations. Many find our summers too intense but others are happy to be here no matter the weather - hurricanes notwithstanding. 

Belinda and Elizabeth made wallpaper paste papers and Gina watched our process because she had never used this technique. The wallpaper paste gives a raised texture to the painted image especially when you draw into it with plastic utensils or other mark making tool. 

Belinda and Gina also used their Gelli pads for fabric and paper monoprinting.

In the picture below, left to right, on the top row are Elizabeth's paste papers, Gina's Gellied fabric, Belinda's paste papers.

Middle row, center are Gina's Gellied papers and right,a table full of drying papers.

Bottom row center is the reverse of Belinda's Gellied deli paper and right, the front of that same paper. We liked how the translucence made the paper usable from either side.

Above left are two bookmarks created with packing tape pressed and gently burnished onto the dried paint on the Gelli pad and then removed and pressed onto an old book page. Trimmed up they make pretty cool bookmarks to remember another fun Odd Tuesday. 

As we were leaving Belinda's house, we noticed her hand almost looked as if it had been painted henna-style. But was imprinted with some paint images from a lovely day making messes and getting our hands dirty.

Indigo Dyeing Day

Indigo Dyeing Day

A breezy and slightly chilly day on the patio with two indigo dye buckets.

Jackie's bucket used a slightly older Jacquard indigo kit, while Gina's was newer. Biggest difference? Gina's white powder chemicals (soda ash and thiox?) were in separate packets, while Jackie's were pre-mixed.

Neither bucket seemed to produce the 'bloom flower' to scoop off of the top prior to dunking the fabrics.

The dyes seemed to take quite well initially, but the proof is in the washout! What will stick? Was Jackie's bucket mix viable?

Pics to follow of the washout results!!

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Jackie adds:

Here's the grid of cotton and linen pieces after
a) rinse with hose and bucket outside
b) wash in washing machine with detergent
c) dryer drying (except doilies or scarf)

Jackie's cotton and linen indigo dye results

1. blue cotton t-shirt with spiral tie
2. pink cotton t-shirt with spiral tie
3. Belinda's "car seat cover" with spiral tie
4. Belinda's other "car seat cover" with spiral tie
5. overdyed gelli prints on cotton
6. overdyed old doilies
7-9. overdyed linen shirt with some stitch resist (and mark-hiding result)

Jackie's overdyed rayon scarf

Rayon scarf with procion dye base and indigo overdye.

Summary/thoughts:

My cotton and linen washout results are a bit disappointing. The coloration is very subtle - I hoped for darker and/or more dye sticking.
So...was it the prep (tshirts may have had dryer sheet residue) ...or the prep of the bucket...or the temperature of the day (heard that heat gives better indigo results) or the fabric type... or impatience (longer oxidizing/soak wait).

Or - did we exhaust the indigo in the bucket? I thought it was good for 5 shirts - yet Gina thought it was 15. Hmmmm.

However - the rayon worked out great! It had two dunkings in the indigo bucket.

I was all set to fling everything in a new bucket right away - but I'll ponder my approach for a bit and do some technique research before I go experimenting!

Hope to see everyone else's pieces soon....

--Jackie

And another update from Jackie:

I looked up the instructions/reviews on the Dharma Trading site:

The kit should do 5 pounds of fabric or about 15 yards.

One reviewer posted the following

 Excellent results. Dyed about three pounds of cotton fabric some silk ribbon three huge skeins of handspun over three days. After that the flower shrunk up and the liquid turned blue--exhausted. Ordered several more kits.

and I'm now thinking my dye pot was exhausted quickly because it was overwhemingly blue vs. green to start.

--Jackie

Updates Continue.....Gina's Results:

I did a total of 12 t-shirts/tops, 8 or 9 pairs of socks and several pieces of varying sizes of fabric. A few pieces were given a second dip. I was happy with the color. I didn't notice a difference between pre-soaking fabric and putting it in dry although I did the dry pieces near the end of my dyeing so perhaps they would not have absorbed as much dye had they been wet. They sure did sop up the dye water though as my bucket was down to about 1/3 full after the bulky t-shirts and socks. My vat stayed green though throughout.

Elizabeth here - I dyed four items:
some fabric that had been sunprinted with acrylic paint on an earlier OT day and then a linen napkin. I scrunched them in my hand and held them in the dye for a little more than a minute.

 I also overdyed a silk scarf  that had been dyed with procion dyes. I knotted it and used Gina's dye bucket and it came out with many gradations of blues and greens and I am very pleased with it.

~~Belinda's photos via Jerry...~~~