QC6 Day 21

The days sure go by quickly.  It was cloudy, cool and gray this morning till mid-afternoon.  So the morning was spent indoors on the computer working on business stuff.  But I did get some things done this afternoon and evening.  I had 2 pieces sitting in some left over dye that I washed out; one in yellow & coral, one in blue.  I knew a lot of color would wash out because the dye was pretty well spent, but I like the soft colors of the coral & yellow.  Hopefully not too much will wash out in the final machine wash.  The blue is darker than I expected but probably more will wash out of that too.

Then I did a little screen printing with thickened dye on a couple of pieces that have been sitting around - previously dyed and/or surface designed - waiting for something else. I really like the texture this crackle screen adds.

I decided to dye a couple more pieces in the indigo pot.  One is the silk scarf that I pole wrapped and dyed before, but it came out with very little color so this time I used small glass marbles banded with rubber bands.  And I had a fat quarter that was a pretty solid green, so I accordion pleated it and banded it every few inches.  Here they are after dipping; tomorrow I'll hang them in the sun to dry.

I also put some other pieces in soda ash to soak so they'll be ready for more dyeing tomorrow.

Quilt camp (at least for me) will be coming to an end soon - just a few more days!  So I'm trying to fit in all the things I still want to do!
 

QC6 Day 14

How can 2 weeks have gone by so quickly?  I guess when I look back at all I've done it's not so surprising but it sure doesn't seem like 2 weeks!  Today was definitely a productivity day!  I spent most of the day - all day - printing, trying out a couple of techniques I read about.  The first was a resist process by Jeannie Palmer Moore, printing with white paint on white fabric.  After it dries and is heat set, you apply liquid dye with a brayer.  I got so involved, I forgot to take "before" pictures of the white on white fabric!  But I do have pictures after the dye is applied.  Tomorrow will be the "wash out" to see the final result.  Of course, part of the process was using some newly made screens, so that was exciting too.  Here are a few pieces.

 This is the biggest piece, a half yard.  the screen used here is "crackle".  I used 3 colors of dye - coral, yellow, and parakeet.  The other pieces are all 9 or 10 inch pieces of fabric.

Along with this process, I tried another great idea from Diane Doran.  When finished printing with a screen, a lot of paint gets washed away in the clean up.  Usually I print on extra fabric to use up the paint but an even better way is to print with a slightly damp sponge which not only uses up the excess paint but helps clean the screen at the same time.  I got lots of extra prints from every screen I used.  Luckily I had brought along a Cherrywood scrap bag of 6 x 9 inch pieces which were perfect for using up the extra paint, and great colors to boot.  If you are not familiar with Cherrywood, take a look at their website - great hand dyed cottons with a suede-like appearance.

Above I was using a sponge to print with the excess ink.  Below, all 3 prints were made using the sponge and all are white paint, even though they appear different on the 3 colors.

Above are more of the prints on a drying rack.

Another technique I tried was using a brayer and liquid dye over texture plates.  This fabric could be cut up and used as is or another layer of surface design could be added. 

 

And one more thing, I made an addition to this piece that I started the first week with a sun print. Can you tell what's different?

  

QC6 Day 10

Ten days already?  It's hard to believe we've been here that long!  Today was mostly a studio/sewing day.  Here is the day in pictures.

I tried out some new screens.  The photo above is before and after.  I added a little pine sprig to the fabric in the bottom photo.  In the pictures below, I was trying out a ledger page from 1899 and a postcard from 1908.

I decided to over dye the shibori piece in yesterday's post.  I wrapped it with the lighter part on the outside and put it in deep purple dye.

 

I also decided to try another type of shibori, using shape resists.  These circles are clamped above, below, and between the folded layers of fabric.  It was a light blue when I started.  It is in cobalt blue dye.

I crackled the flour resist piece and applied dy-na-flow paint.  After it dried, I washed it out.  It wasn't as successful as I hoped - too much paint; the Dy-na-flow is thin and pools underneath, which I forgot about.  But there are some decent parts.  (That is the bottom picture below.)  The top is a set of 10 linen napkins in a turkey red dye bath.  (Thinking ahead to Christmas.)

I also worked on sewing together my row from Keepsake Quilting.  It's all together, but I haven't taken pictures yet so that will be in tomorrow's post.

Finally, to end the day, a trip to Bailey's Bubble for ice cream (Maine Blackbear) and the evening sun after a thunderstorm.

Scarf Overdye

Last month I posted about some snow dyeing I did.  Along with that, I ice-dyed an infinity scarf. 

Some areas came out really pale, and I really wanted more of the blue, so yesterday I did another round of ice-dyeing using only the blue to fill in those pale areas.  Here is what is looks like now.  Better, I think.

Weekend Shibori Class - Final Reveal

We finished up dyeing Sunday afternoon with 2 dye baths - one of Brazil Nut, the other Black Cherry.  Both of these dyes produced wonderful results. Since the colors are a mixture of other colors, you see some of those component colors separating out in the dyed fabric, making them look like they'd been in multiple dye baths instead of just one.

The picture below is actually 3 strips side by side that were clamp-resist dyed, first in kingfisher blue, and then the 2 outside pieces were over-dyed in black cherry.  I really like the 3 pieces together.

This piece was originally pole wrapped and dyed yellow, then accordion pleated, banded and over-dyed in Brazil nut.

We dyed several different silk scarves throughout the weekend including this one that we started Saturday morning with a direct dye application, allowed to batch over night, then washed and dried before pole-wrapping and over-dyeing in Brazil nut.

The next one was pole-wrapped and dyed twice - first in sea foam, and then in kingfisher blue.

This scarf was also pole-wrapped first and dyed in scarlet red.  Then it was folded, clamped with a large square, and over-dyed in black cherry.

The last scarf we worked with was a silk charmeuse, wide and long enough to be used as either a wrap or a scarf. There were some very beautiful, dramatic results with these.  Below is Alice's scarf; she used a variety of techniques for some interesting patterns.  I think this was done in emerald green, but see how the blues separate out.

Kathy spent a lot of time stitching her scarf, but it really paid off with the results she got.  Click on the picture so you can zoom in closer.  This was dyed in Brazil nut, but you can also see the blue components of the dye.

I decided to accordion fold and bind my scarf - it was one of the faster techniques, but still can create amazing results.  I dyed it in black cherry; it's hard to believe it was only in one color!

This was a fabulous class and I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend in Lancaster.  I would have enjoyed having time to explore the shops and art galleries as well - I guess that means a return trip!  Props to the PA Guild of Craftsmen and Kachina Martin for a great workshop.  I highly recommend it!

Weekend Shibori Class - Part 3

Here's what happened next with the homework pieces from day 1, and the results after dyeing on day 2.  All the stitching was pulled really tight to gather up the fabric and knotted off.  The top picture is a scarf with Mokume Shibori, or stitched wood grain.

 

 The piece above is called Orinui, which means undulating lines.  This is the wavy stitched piece from yesterday.  The one below is Karamatsu which is a Japanese larch and gives a circular effect. The stitching is 3 concentric arcs to make each patterned circle.

This is what they look like after dyeing and removing the stitching.

This is one half of the scarf, dyed in scarlet red.

The Orinui was originally yellow and overdyed in scarlet red.

The larch was originally rust orange, overdyed in brazil nut. 

Another technique we learned on day 2 was clamping.  The fabric is first folded and then wooden shapes are placed on the outsides (and in between in this case because there are 3 pieces of fabric) and held in place with clamps.  The dye comes in contact with the exposed fabric while the shapes act as a resist to prevent the dye from penetrating. 

 

This is one of the pieces from the clamping resist, dyed in kingfisher blue.

Come back tomorrow for the final reveal!

Weekend Shibori Class - Part 2

We learned a few other methods of binding and wrapping and other resists on Saturday as well, and had some homework to get pieces ready for dye baths on Sunday.  We actually did 4 different colors both days.  Some items went in only one, others were overdyed.  Our first 2 were rust orange and bright yellow, followed by sea foam and emerald green later in the day.

Some of the methods we learned in the afternoon were the spiderweb, accordion folding and tying, and tying "bundles" around small rocks and pebbles.  The top two were in emerald green; the bottom one is sea foam.

I'm glad I have this picture of the sea foam (rock resist); I ended up overdyeing this piece so most of this pattern is obscured in the next step.  I also pole wrapped a scarf that was dyed in the sea foam.

Our homework was to complete the stitch resist pieces we were working on - one was creating a wave pattern, and another was concentric half circles - the Japanese larch - and anything else we wanted to have ready to dye on day 2.  The straight stitched piece below is another scarf.

I spent several hours Saturday evening doing the stitches on these 3 pieces.  Results tomorrow.

Weekend Shibori Class - Part 1

What a great weekend in Lancaster, PA, taking a workshop at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsman.  It was a full 2-day workshop learning techniques of Japanese shibori dyeing - methods of wrapping, folding, stitching, binding and clamping to create beautiful patterns and textures in fabric. 

Our instructor was Kachina Martin, who is a public school art teacher as well as craftsman and juried member of the Pennsylvania guild.  We started off learning about direct dye application on a scarf and allowing it to "batch" or cure, wrapped in plastic, overnight.

   This project would get a second technique and dye applied on day 2.

We also learned several stitching and binding techniques.  On this piece, rows of running stitches are pulled to tightly gather the fabric, then the thread is knotted to keep it pulled tight before dyeing.

Here's what it looks like after dyeing and removing the stitching.

Another technique we learned was pole wrapping.  Using pvc pipe, the fabric (or scarf or item to be dyed) is wrapped around the pipe.  As it is wrapped, it is bound with cord and scrunched together, so that a large amount of fabric takes up very little space.  Several scarves or pieces of fabric can be wrapped on the same pole.

This is the first piece of fabric that I pole wrapped.  You'll see that parts of this piece later have other techniques applied as well. It was folded in half lengthwise and positioned diagonally on the pole to get the chevron effect you see here.

That's what we did in the morning of day 1.  Look for another installment tomorrow!