Suprise!!!!

Surprise!!!

I have had the urge to do some ice dyeing for a while and decided one day last week to just get to it. I gathered all the dyes. buckets, containers and the tub of soaking fabric. I set up my work area and proceeded to open the tub of fabric. I knew I had put a bunch of fat quarters in there to soak along with a piece I wanted to over dye.

Nice surprise when I saw all of the fabric and the solution was a lovely shade of pink !!!! It appears that the piece I wanted do over dye was not sufficiently rinsed and shared it's color with everyone  in the tub. Needless to say, I did a few loads of bleach wash to get them back to white.  No dyeing this time around.

I mixed a new batch of soda ash and re-soaked the fabric and thought I would try a gradation instead. Only one color and  some plastic bags, good for a warm-up to ice dyeing. I played around and did a ten step gradation of mulberry.



Confetti and Ice

On Saturday I had the pleasure of demo-ing my iced parfait for the CFAC at Carol Eaton's home, along with two if my Sisters in Cloth, Diane Wright and Barb Adams. It felt good to have my hands in the ice to cool down as it was very hazy, hot, and humid.

In the first picture is I scrunched the fabric and used a limited palette. The 'green' picked up some red and blue from th e next layer. Almost have that coral I'm looking for.

This next set is folded diagonally and on the short side with several colors used. Still looking for that coral.







Carol then demoed her Confetti Dyeing and although I had reservations and concerns about the potential drippy mess, I forged ahead. Fabric was soaked in soda ash, laid flat and sprinkled with dry dye, hung up and sprayed with soda ash.

All I can say is WOW!! It was amazin gto see how the colors mixed and mingles as they flowed down the cloth.  There are actually two seperate pieces here and if you look at the right one, you can see the shadow of a figure in the middle , and on the left one, i see a figure and building lights framed by to trees. Ok, I know I needed some fluids and  a hit of caffine at that point and to get out of the sun. But I can still sort of see them after the fabric has been dried and ironed......or maybe I need some caffine now. Can't wait to try this again....on a cooler day.....no humidity.

Experimenting

I have been intrigued by the Confetti Dyeing of my friend , Carol Eaton, and while I had the makings for Iced Parfait out,  I thought I would finally give it a try. Of course with a few variations.

I searched for my strainer and found I must have tossed it out onto the great beyond in my last kitchen cleanout. Having thought about what to use to spread the dye , I decided to see if a salt/pepper shaker would work. I'm not so crazy of spraying the soda ash on and drip drying and  decided to layer with crushed ice and plastic and see what happens.

A little to heavy on the red here ( will I ever learn )and not enough yellow. But I can see using it somewhere.






So on I go to the next layer. I can see the speckling but I might still be a little heavy handed here with the shaker. I also scrunched the fabric slightly.

And the final piece. I do have to say, being summer and hot does really make the process go much faster than in the cooler/cold months.

 That ice melts way fast!!

I might be getting the hang of this but I still feel I need remedial lessons. Or at least a little direction but it was a fun experiment.
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Dyeing in the Shade

My art group, Sisters in Cloth,  held an Iced Parfait dyeing sessions at Diane Wright's home recently. Of course it was warm and a touch humid, but the shade from the trees made it delightful! Here are some of the results from my containers. I do have to say it was different than dyeing during the much cooler (colder, indoor) months and the results are interesting and different..

I'm thinking a lighter hand on the dyes, more ice to the layer, and watch out for the red and darker colors......very light on them. And watch your color combinations.

This last group looks a little better in person. I also think the weight of the fabric has played a part in this. I used a cotton silk blend on some of these which may have caused the dye to take faster. I do have some really nice ones I love that I will save for the reveal this coming Friday!!