Wednesday, August 12, 2009

No Power Dyeing Today!

For years, a session dyeing generally meant I would have 50 yards of new fabric by the end of the day and would dye like this for about a week before I just gave up and ironed the piles of fabric I had created! Speed was of the essence.

Since spending so much time marbling lately, my approach to dyeing has modified a bit as well. I am thinking more about what I am doing, trying some new things and just working on yardage until I get what I would like at which point I call it the end. So now there are only a few pieces from each day and I will work on those until I am happy rather than put them in the ugly basket -- although marbling might be just the thing to add eventually!

This was a piece that I folded and put to alligator clips on. All these pieces were immersion dyed in ProChem's Intense Blue. I had about 500 gms of fabric and I used about two level tbsps of the dye and two cuts of salt per the 3 gallons of water. I used about 1 1/2 cups of soda ash. All the pieces here went into the same dye bath.
This was the plain white fabric as above but with the clips with the circles at the end from the dollar store. These previous two I presoaked in water so that they would resist the dye a bit more.


This was an overdye of the intense blue over basically a 3% turquoise/3% sun yellow that I did using lwi. I loosely wrapped this yard over a rolled up piece of needlepoint canvas thinking that the dye would penetrate all layers better which it did. I was surprised that I didn't get any markings from the needlepoint canvas. It is a pretty color. I didn't presoak this one but did presoak the next one.



This was also a piece of the sun yellow/turquoise which I overdyed with the intense blue and used the clips again after accordion folding. Don't think I will do any more layers here but you never know!


This was one of the pieces from the previous dye session that I said I would overdye. It was originally the yucky green/gold and I had folded it and rubber banded it and dyed in the intense blue/navy mixture. Those are the darker lines. This time I wound it loosely over a 5 inch pvc pipe. I didn't presoak this one as I wanted more of the dye to go over the yucky part that didn't dye with the last bath. I will probably do no more on this one, however I reserve the right.....
Today the dye pots will have to remain silent as I MUST clean my bedroom so I can enjoy my new birthday tv!

3 comments:

  1. These turned out great! I love the third one!

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  2. Hi, Beth! I am desperately looking for info on the proper way to dye arashi shibori... have tried direct application, but I'm not satisfied with the results. Can you recommend a book, video or on-line source of instructions start to finish? I get the pole wrapping part, it's just how the dyes are best applied to get maximum saturation! Thanks, Judy

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  3. It is no different from regular immersion dyeing. I try to find containers that are high enough for the poles (like 6 gallon containers or the largest kitty litter containers which are high). I mix up my dyes for regular immersion dyeing (requires salt equivalent to the weight of the yardage) and a couple of tbsps of dye. I dip the poles and swish around for 15 min and then add the soda ash. Stir for another 15 min., then stir intermittently for the next 3/4 hour. If you want lots of patterning, use wet cloth to begin with, more movement of color dry cloth. All from a class with Jan Myers-Newberry who does an excellent job teaching this technique.

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