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Archive for the ‘Dyeing’ Category

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If at First You Don’t Succeed

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

…try try again.

These are quite spectacular, but not what I had imagined. I made an error in following Jan Meyers Newberry’s directions. I forgot that I was working on silk and not cotton. Black dyes do not dye silk the same as cotton so I ended up with red instead of black. These are the 15 inch wide scarves. These are the 11 inch wide pieces:

Here are a couple of detail shots of the larger scarves:

The turquoise and fuchsia scarves were not over-dyed with black.

Here are some random pieces of linen, cotton and silk that  I threw into the dye baths:

Undaunted, I underpainted six more scarves and I will use silk black on them to see what happens.

I was not happy with the yellowish orange shibori so that is being over-dyed with rust and I am dyeing two more chartreuse scarves to be over-dyed with black.

I am having fun and focused!! Time to update the SDA website. I will check in with the new results tomorrow.

Posted in Dyeing, Trinity Arts | 5 Comments »

Dyeing Day One

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

No, I didn’t dye this, but I finished the edges while I was waiting for some fabric to soak in soda ash. It is a paint rag that I embellished with black ink. I then cut it up and collaged it with some hand-dyed fabric strips.

I did lots of dyeing of silk scarves today. My first task was to underpaint some scarves without soda ash that will be overdyed after being arashi shibori wrapped on pvs poles.

I mixed up fuchsia, turquoise and lemon yellow.

Here are the other supplies that I use: foam brushes, extra containers and some water.

I covered my work tables with plastic and laid out a couple of scarves and spritzed with water.

Here are the first two. One is yellow to turquoise. The other is turquoise to purply blue.

I did two that are fuchsia to orangy red – color is not showing well.

Then I had some dye soup to which I added water to make value gradations.

I just love that orange.

I then soaked some scarves in soda ash and did immersion dyeing with some chartreuse and some more dye soup. I still had dye left so I grabbed some fabric scraps from my pfd cabinet and dyed them. They are batching in the furnace room. The dye painted pieces are drying and will be wrapped on pvc pipe tomorrow and over-dyed with black, I think.

I am whooped and want to be taken out to dinner and pampered.

Posted in Dyeing, My creations | 3 Comments »

My New Camera!!

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

I bought a Nikon D3000, an entry level SLR digital camera. I got a great deal on a factory reconditioned camera. It cost less than having a couple of quilts professionally photographed. I have spent a lot of time today getting familiar with it. It can be a point and shoot or you can do more advanced stuff.

I felt that I needed to step up the photography of my quilts for entering shows. I will probably use this mainly as a studio camera. But, who knows?

So, here is our first comparison. The silk version of the Prairie Circles quilt was on my design wall and I took photos with both cameras, using a tripod and the same lighting. I have not retouched either photo.

This is with the new camera:

And, old camera:

Ta da!!

Tomorrow, Steph is coming by to take photos of Terry and I for our Twelve X Twelve book. Maybe, she will use my new camera!! I spent a couple of hours getting my hair cut and the color touched up. It is amazing how much better I feel after I do that. I took this photo with my Apple iBook photo booth.

I am having problems getting just the right gray and beige for the lava quilt. I am off to mix up some dye and try again tonight.

Posted in 12X12 challenge, Dyeing, My hair, photography | 5 Comments »

Do or Dye

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Well, I did both. I presided over a marathon and extremely productive guild board meeting. This afternoon, I did a base dyeing on 4 scarves with watered down Colorhue dyes. Tonight, I added the shibori effects. This one was folded and dipped in black.

This one was folded and dipped in black, but I obviously was not as precise with my folding!!

The other two were pole wrapped and squirted with dye. Click on the photo and you can see the detail a bit better.

I had an epiphany this afternoon while watching the Dr. Oz show. It was about the DNA diet.

A now famous study conducted at Stanford University looked at the long-term effects of weight loss using a few different diets assigned at random. Results showed that some participants lost weight on one type of diet, such as low-fat, while others did not. The study then tested participants’ DNA for 3 specific gene variations and found that those using the best diet for their DNA lost as much as 2 ½ times more weight than those not using their best DNA diet.

Dr. Oz explained the 3 different diets and the profiles that fit with each. I now know why I could not lose weight on Weight Watchers. I fit the profile for a low carb diet. The only other times in  my life when I have lost weight and kept it off were low carb diets. I am going to give the low carb diet a try. It means weaning myself off the grains that I love so much. I can only have them in moderate amounts. I think I can do this. But, first, I have to finish me See’s Candy Divinity Fudge Egg. I am having a slice a day. One more to go.

Posted in Columbia FiberArts Guild, Dyeing, shibori | 5 Comments »

Improvisational Fabric Design

Friday, February 26th, 2010

I have always eschewed taking dyeing classes that require measurement and tabulating results. I love the serendipity of just throwing in some random dye on some random fabric to see what will happen. This piece was a wimpy blue and green yesterday. I threw it in a dye bath of chocolate brown. I love it. Here is a detail.

It is so complex now with warm and cool colors showing up. It works perfectly with the big piece I am working on. This was an afterthought because I had left over dye.

The tray dyeing with 3 different greens and splashed of black was not so successful and will be over-dyed at some point. The water was too cold. I didn’t use enough dye and didn’t mix it very well.

I got most of the fabric fused today and finally became brave enough to cut into it. I stopped when I realized that I wanted some warm yellow. I took this wimpy beige fabric:

and painted it yellow with some copper accents.

Gaaa! I love it. I love how paint can transform a piece of fabric.

Posted in Dyeing, painting fabric | 7 Comments »

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