home
about the artist
gallery
blog
links
contact

Archive for October 11th, 2009

Playing with Colorhue Dyes

Sunday, October 11th, 2009

firstdyedrying

My bottles of Colorhue dye came with no instructions. I searched on the Internet and figured out that you need only a few drops of the dye concentrate in the water and so I forged ahead.

I had a sheet of plexiglas. I dripped some of my dye solution on the Plexiglas and then laid a piece of silk charmeuse over it. The Colorhue dyes strike instantly and do not spread very much.

dyedropsonplexiglass

The fabric in the middle in the top photo was the first piece that I did. The piece on the right was done with dry silk charmeuse and I added some black dribbles.

Next, I  folded a piece of silk charmeuse lengthwise and again the other direction, accordian style. I dipped it in 3 different colors – magenta, turquoise and pumpkin.

foldanddrip

It is the first fabric in the top photo. I was not happy with the bright fuchsia color and later, I fixed that.

But, first, I wanted to try some shibori. I wrapped a scarf on a pvc pole with cotton string.

polewrappedsilk

I put brown, pumpkin and turquoise in squeeze bottles and dripped the dye on the wrapped silk.

shiboricolorhuedyes

Here is the result of my first Colorhue shibori attempt. You can click on any image to see a larger photo.

1stshiboriattempt

Not, bad, but the brown is not brown, it is purple. And there is a lot of white space. I let it dry a bit and brought it back into the dye studio and just poured turquoise dye over it to fill in the white areas. Here is the final scarf which I took in to church today as a class sample and got 3 more sign-ups. It really is very lovely.

finalshiboriscarf

Here is the back story on the brown. Ginny Eckley who sells the dyes told me that the brown is a very red brown and to add green and yellow to it to get a better brown, so I will try that next time.

So, I am finished and I have left over dye and dye in the bucket that dripped from the shibori dyeing. What would you do? I threw all the dye into the bucket and immersed the previously dyed pieces.

overdyedsilk

moreoverdyedsilk

I grabbed a couple of scarves that were previously dyed – one with acid dyes and one with indigo and rust.

oldshiboriscarf indigorustdye1 rustdyedshibori2

I threw them into the dye soup with this result.

finaloverdye3

I like how the dye toned down the orange and green,

rustdyefinal rustdyefinal2

On this scarf, the dye gave a richer color to the scarf. The original scarf did not get a very strong indigo dye.

Then, I noticed that I had not put the black into the dye soup. Dumped it in and added the original 3 samples which now look like this.

finaloverdye

finaloverdye2

This is so much fun with instant gratification.  Next, I want to try Lumiere and Neopaque paint prints with over dyeing, bubble wrap, and fabric tied around a rope.

Last night, Mr C took me out for a fabulous dinner. Tonight we have Scooter school. It was canceled last week because the trainer was sick. Tomorrow, for my birthday, I am going to the dentist in the morning and then to theology class in the evening.

Thank you to every one who is e-mailing and sending greetings. I love my virtual friends.