Portfolio of older work

Friday, February 13, 2015

Another Attempt at Another Failure

This piece was painted with thickened dye  Yuck!  No picture.  An attempt to make it better was wrapping it around a dryer vent, scrunching it, then dyeing it.  It got better with the second technique but still was nothing to write home about.  Here is the picture.


Third dyeing method was twisting method used on the last loser.  Here is a picture of it all twisted.

The light fabric was over dyed with a dark dye but this loser was already dark so I decided to discharge it.  I was going to use bleach but then remembered this that I had just bought.

Into my bathroom sink went the twisted fabric and it was sprayed, sprayed, and sprayed some more with Mr. Clean.

I was not sure that Mr. Clean was discharging my fabric but the sink certainly was shining.  I expected fairly immediate results but after 45 minutes, this is what it looked like.


Is it any lighter?  I don't think so but I got tired of waiting and decided to unwrap and see what I had.  Here it is washed and dried.


Kind of a subtle change but certainly lightened.  I like it better but I think I will see what happens using the same twisted technique but using bleach instead of Mr. Clean.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

One more attempt on a failure

Here it is.  One really ugly fabrics.  It had been snow dyed three times and was still a loser.

  I saw a post on the Fire Blog that looked interesting.  I decided that would be the next technique I'd use on my loser. I'll show you the second loser in the next post.


First I twisted the fabric as tight as I could get it and tied the ends.

The 3x snow dyed piece got some dark dye applied since it was so light and blah.


Then I batched it.  I was going to let it batch overnight but got too impatient and it was only a couple of hours.

And here it is washed and dried.


Definitely more drama!  I really like it but I think I will over dye it one more time.  It might get even better and then I'll love it.

Monday, February 9, 2015

Undyeing

Sounds interesting, huh?  Here are the 1, 2, 3, and 4 posts on the Fire Blog that explains what it is and how to do it.


Here are my little pea pods, dyed, wrapped, boiled, and now waiting to dry before I unwrap them.  The centers are the green and the outer edges are purple.  Rather than folding it in any of the ways demonstrated on the Fire blog I simply pinched the fabric in the middle and let the fabric drape down and started wrapping.

The blocks are 6 1/2 inches square.  I am planning to make 48  to sew together into a baby quilt.  I'll be ready for the next family baby.

Here is the big reveal.







 I am not all the impressed.  I think I will use a third color on the rest and maybe boil them a bit longer.


Friday, February 6, 2015

One, Two, Three Snow Dyes

Snow Dye One
Beth and I had a snow dye play date.  Hers turned out nice.  My three were horrible.  Too little dye used on the snow and the dye color was too light.  Results = almost nothing.  I didn't even take a picture.

Snow Dye Two
As soon as I got home I set up a snow dye screen and redyed the worst of the three.  I strengthened the dye mixtures and used lots of it on the snow.  Here are my results.

What happened? I forgot the soda ash.  Therefore the dye didn't give a first strike on the fabric that leaves lovely patterns.  Instead the melting snow just kept washing the dye out of the fabric.  I didn't iron the fabric because the little dye left in the fabric was not set and I was afraid some of it would come out on my ironing board.

Snow Dye Three
So at 9 pm I was outside digging through the ice on top of the snow trying to get some snow to try dyeing the SAME fabric for a third time.  Here is what it looked like before I went to bed.


When the ice had melted it looked like mud but I rinsed it and washed it.

Here it is washed out, dried, and ironed.


If it really looked this good in person I would have been excited. Why is it that the camera either doesn't pick up the colors or it enhances them making the fabric look better.  Anyway, it has gone into my re-do pile.