Last of the Snow Dyes

Here are all the scrap pieces I dyed.  I had lots of fun dyeing, but my fingers froze.

Looks like a snow cone, but don't eat!

Fushia and Black Dye

close-up

Mixture of dyes -mainly black

mixture - blue, yellow, black, and a fushia spill

Fushia, Turquoise, and Black

Snow dyeing - interesting surprise

 Okay, so I only had two racks - improvise when you are too impatient!

 here is the result.  This was on a scrap of PFD fabric.

 Close up of surprise in corner:  A butterfly (may be from South America)

Snow dyeing - more results

Here are some pictures of my synthetic silk piece.  The finished piece looked pretty good until I rinsed it,  It did not retain much of the dye.

Snow Dyeing -silk scarf

So yesterday told about the predye process. Today I will show you pictures of my silk scarf from start to finish.  I used the same soaking for the silk as I did for all my fabric.  I only had two racks so i squished this piece up on a Styrofoam bowl set it in a leftover cover from McD's and packed snow on top.

Waiting

 Pouring on fuchsia , then the turquoise

                         snow melting

These pictures did not turn out that well, the scarf is transparent.  I 'd get better pictures but I gave it to my son's fiancee and it is now in Florida.  Tomorrow I'll post about my favorite piece.

Snow Dyeing

I tried snow dyeing with the last snow we had.  It wasn't much but managed to scrape some up.
I first soaked my fabric in soda ash water.  I used PFD cotton, synthetic satin, a silk scarf, pale eco dyed pieces, scape white with stains.

I used 1/2 tsp. of powdered dye, 1 tsp salt dissolved in  6oz of water for my dye bases.

                   

 I used 1/2 tsp. of powdered dye, 1 tsp salt dissolved in  6oz of water for my dye bases.

I placed my fabric on a wire rack over a plastic tray and packed on the snow. Next step was squirting  on the dye.
I will show the before and after pictures for each fabric step by step in the next couple of posts.

Luna moth

My latest work has been to thread paint a luna moth.  for the book journal back ground I used some of my walnut dyed fabric with some additional brown ink.  Then I lay a piece of fusible on it stitched it in all directions.  Next I held an iron over it and it shrink up wit gathers.  I used thread painting and re-purposed denim for the rest.

I also made a Christmas journal and several color pencil holders.

reverse side

Part 1 Leaf Dyeing

This is the first post in my leaf dyeing experiments.  The first thing I did,  after collectiny my leavers, was to press them between the pages of a large phone book over night.  Then I spread them out on fabric that had been soaked in soda ash as a mordant.  I misted the fabric and laid the leaves down.  Next I covered them with a second cloth. rolled the cloths into bundles and tied them.  Here are pictures of the lovely colorful leaves.

Study in Reds

Sycamore Leaves

Leaf Bundles

        As you can tell from my photos, I started out with various kinds of fabrics and colors of cloth. I used cotton and linen fabrics.  One of the cottons was dyed  previously in dry Black-eyed Susan heads. Another had been rust dyed on chicken wire but the print was too faint.  I was hoping for a little reaction from the rust and the tannin in the leaves.
Result pictures coming soon.

Painted Ponies -Glue Batik

Here is a picture of the glue based batik I was working on.  I was done on a large piece of linen from an used shirt.  The ponies are my daughter's design.
If you haven't tried glue for a batik method  It is very easy.  Elmer's Blue school gel is what you use.
Now how to thread paint this .....

Working Hard

Just taking a quick break.  I've been working on 6 new journal covers and some quilted bookmakers.  Need to add hand embellishments this evening.
The rust dyed velor fabric made 2 very nice journal covers. Only one problem, the sewing machine needle would not sew through them and just kept shredding the thread.  This is the first time I've had trouble with my rust dyed fabric.  I thought I had a perfect solution, I'd try needle felting it.  Three broken needles later I gave up.  Now I am hand embellishing shell outlines and couching other fibers.  I am happy with the results, just not the pace.

My second attempt with glue batik has had good results.  I thought it would be a disaster because I started painting and then let it set three weeks before I got back to it.  Rinsed out the glue yesterday and it actually still came out. Yeah!   Now for some color touch up an a lot of thread painting.

Rust dyeing Results

The rust dyes are washed, dried, and ironed.  Here they are just be for I brought them in to iron.  I was not as pleased with the first cotton one as I usually am.  It will be good cut up and used with other fabrics.

 The rust dye on the white velor turned out great.  I am planning on making a quilted journal cover from it.

 Close up of the rust dye velor

Huge Mushroom

I came home this evening to find this huge mushroom on my porch. (I'm guessing it is from my neighbor.)   You can't tell from the picture but I can't get my hand around the stem it is so thick.  I thought the texture was really cool.  Anyway it is very soft and is calling out that it wants to be fabric dye.  Below is a picture where you can see the stem.