I consider Saturday to be one of my workdays. If I am not teaching that day, it gives me a time and place to catch up on things, plan/work ahead for the the upcoming week. I find that if I get up and get going at my usual weekday time, things happen. If I don’t treat it like that, I can get distracted by other tasks and ideas. Today was an early day at the studio. I had a couple of things that didn’t get done yesterday to catch up on – and they got done much quicker than if I’d done them last nite.
I spent some time working on a flyer for a vendor to use at the sale next week using her pics and text. She was away at a Volleyball tournament elsewhere in SW Saskatchewan for the day so we talked on the phone, I made a few changes and emailed it to her. I also tidied up in stages as a break from other activities. There was a training event going on in this area of the building and when their lunch came, the smell of the soup made me realize I was hungry so I stopped for my own lunch. While I was eating, I looked out the window and saw the “deer” friends again!
my lunchtime companion in mid-bite
After awhile I heard a horn, so I looked out
two deer grazing outside studio window
and my lunchtime companion had a friend
with her.
After lunch I had to make a quick trip to the dollar stores to get some plastic tongs and some eye droppers to use while dyeing . Then I mixed up the colors to start dyeing.
Color Hue dyes mixed and ready to use
Using these dyes is entirely too much fun!! They are protein dyes. You add the dye concentrate ( I used between 25 and 40 drops for darker colours) per half cup of water. You add the dye mixture to wet silk in a variety of ways and it is IMMEDIATELY soaked up by the fabric. I was using the clear plastic top of a cake or platter container. No batching, no waiting, NADA. in fact when you squeeze the silk out……..the water is clear or very close to it….all the dye is in the fabric.
- my low tech dyeing surface
I did find the dyes to be brighter and more pastel than I would like, even though I mixed them up as “dark” colours according to the directions on the CD I bought with the sampler package. Since I was learning how the dyes worked, I did a few with the colors as mixed up. Once I had a sense of how they worked using several of the suggested techniques, I started mixing colours. I found adding 3 drops or so of black or brown to a color toned it down considerably to more like the palette I wanted. I also mixed a few colors to see what would happen and was pleased with those results as well.
overdyeing a "too bright" scarf
Here are the scarves grouped together as I’m writing the blog…….most are already dry. The hangar is one I picked up at Ikea in Edmonton last Sunday - bought to display scarves or fqs.
results of today's dyeing session
A close up of some of the scarves, showing overdyeing in the pink/blue ones and the green ones. I used the same color mixture for the green scarf on the bottom but added about 3 – 5 drops of black to it to darken the green. The blueish colored scarf next to the one on the bottom left is the same colour family but overdyed with a electric blue with black added.
Close up view showing some of the overdyed scarves next to original colors
All in all it was fun to use these dyes and would certainly make a wonderful make and take workshop. I will probably have another session of scarf dyeing before my Open Studio so I can have more available. I dyed a variety of weights and styles of scarves today, trying out the blanks I have in stock. I do know I liked the cranberry scarf that Elizabeth did in our previous play day dyeing session with the MX dyes. It was more the type of hue I want to do for many of these scarves.
