Dye Day

Last week Sue participated in a socially distanced dye day at Artistic Artifacts.  The class was limited to 7 and each participant had their own 6 foot table, their own supplies, and masks were required.  The method of dyeing employed was low water immersion, done in quart canning jars.

Judy prepared the dyes for everyone; we started with 3 colors - turkey red, mixing blue and sun yellow.  Each person had a pan holding soda ash water to soak our fabric pieces in, and a jug of plain water. Soda ash acts as the fixative to bond the dye to the fabric.

We started with a layer of fabric in the bottom of the jar, then added a quarter cup of the dye concentrate mixed with a quarter cup of plain water. Then another 1/4 cup of soda ash water was added. On top of that, we placed layer 2 of fabric followed by another color of dye and soda ash water, then layer 3 on top of that.  Six jars were assembled with the first 3 colors of dye. Then we were provided 3 more colors - turquoise, fuchsia, and orange. Some yellow and butterscotch were also available.

A total of 11 jars were assembled with fat quarters of fabric, handkerchiefs, doilies, laces and trims.

Above are some of the handkerchiefs.

This group of fat quarters are probably the least successful.  Lesson learned: its probably best to stick with just 2 colors in one jar. Either that, or make sure each layer fills the width of the jar, so there is less  travel of the dye between layers.  Some of these may get some discharge treatment (taking color out) or over-printing.

The top 2 in this photo combined fuchsia and orange.  The bottom 2 combined orange and butterscotch.

In this photo, the top 2 pieces were in the bottom layer in 2 different jars and were folded in accordion pleats.  Both contained the red, blue and yellow dyes,, but in different order.  One had blue as the bottom layer, and the other had red as the bottom layer.

Top 2 were in red/blue/yellow jars.  The bottom 2 were in turquoise/fuchsia combinations.

The bottom 2 here were also in fuchsia and turquoise. The top 2 were a combination of turquoise and yellow.

While all the other fabrics are 100% cotton, these last two are a cotton/silk blend. They were middle layers in the red/blue/yellow jars.  They are actually rectangular but because of the blend, the corners curl up.  The fabric has a really nice sheen to it; in hindsight, Sue might have preferred to dye these by another more controlled method.  

There are also some other handkerchiefs and trims that unfortunately turned out pretty dark.  Those pieces are additional candidates for discharge or other method of color removal.  We'll be sure to share photos when those results are available.  That is the serendipity of this method of dyeing. Some pieces turn out great, others less so. But with more practice and careful consideration of color combinations, results are sure to improve.  The next dye day on June 27 is sold out but there is another on the calendar for August, and an indigo dye day in July.  You can find the class calendar here.