Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Color Blend Dyeing


While visiting mom she asked me to make some fabric to use in this quilt design. I referred to Color By Accident by Ann Johnston, (a really good book on low water immersion dyeing)
and got the basic idea of what I wanted to try.
The pattern calls for 1 yard of the hand dyed "sky" fabric
I wet it out and wrung it to damp, then crumpled it into an old Chinese food takeout container. (perfect size!)


I chose three colors (Gold, Orange and Scarlet) in medium densities, approximately 5 gr per cup.
The measured amounts of dye powders were added to 1/2 the water and dissolved
then poured over the fabric in sections; Scarlet far right, Orange center, and Gold far left.

because there is so little room for the dye in the container they sort of stay where they are put. I let it sit like this for 5 minutes or so then poured a cup of soda ash mix over the top of the whole container which will act as a fixative.

Hows that for a fast and dirty description? Seriously, the book describes the process really well. I recommend it.
So tomorrow we will see how it came out!

3 comments:

Business901 said...

Not sure I want to take the project on, but maybe for a long Saturday!

jude said...

i have that book and i am embarrassed to say that I've been lazy enough not to have tried this.....

alsokaizen said...

This type of dyeing has the wonderful advantage of always giving you a fun result, and all the work is in the set up, kind of like making a stew with lots of cut up vegetables. A little labor then sit back and let it cook.