new pattern, I am sooo sleepy this week :)
I don’t have anything new right now because I am cataloging, redesigning and making alternate colorways of the billions of designs I already have. This is proving to be very time consuming, but at least I got to work outside this weekend.
Today is my Aunt Rita’s Birthday, I had the pleasure of seeing her for the first time in many years this weekend and decided to draw her these little guinea pigs. Happy Birthday Rita! I hope you have a very lovely time, please feel free to come visit again whenever you like!
Hey, the sun finally came out!
It would rock so hard you guys….
Although I had constant access to these dyes when I was in school I regretfully never had the time or the desire to explore their possibilities fully. This may have been directly related to the fact that when compared with much of the other equipment in the lab they were kind of unexciting, now that I am setting up my own “lab” and it happens to be in my home these dyes are becoming more and more intriguing to me. For one thing they are relatively safe to work with, I certainly wouldn’t let my cats play in the room when I’m working but there really isn’t much that I use that would harm my septic system or cause a volatile fume situation (always remember to wear a mask when you are mixing dry chemicals or dyes!) Another pro is the price. A little bit of dye goes a long way, especially when you are hand painting, and once mixed these dyes last for quite a long time. And lastly I love how much time goes into hand painting a fabric panel. Silk screen rocks for so many reasons but when you can’t afford a proper wash out booth and don’t want to get your septic pumped yearly, you really start to appreciate all of the wonderful alternatives there are out there.
1) I started out by preparing the fabric for dye by washing it in very warm water with synthrapol and pot ash to remove any sizing or other chemicals. (I also washed a batch of fabric in the washing machine with regular detergent to see if that would be sufficient)
2) After washing it is important to rinse the fabric thoroughly.
3) While the fabric was drying I mixed up the print paste (for thickening the dye, especially useful for silk screening with dye) and urea water, which you use to thin the super concentrated liquid dyes to your desired shade.
4) It looks like I may have been too distracted while actually mixing the dye to snap a photo, but it goes a little bit like this. WEARING GLOVES measure out the amount of liquid dye, urea water, and pot ash you desire into a container with a secure lid (for storage). I used mason jars because I inherited a million of them and I like that I can see through them to see the color. Make sure that you mark each container with the color, dye concentration and date because they do expire.
5) Take your dry fabric and using thumb tacks stretch it over some stretcher bars. You don’t need to stretch it very tight just enough so that it doesn’t sag in the middle.
6) Paint! the dyes will look pretty much the same when they are set and rinsed (if you did it right) so just paint whatever you like. Please remember to ALWAYS wear rubber gloves when working with dye, you really don’t want it to seep into your body and this stuff can take weeks to come off.
7) let the fabric dry overnight.
to be continued….
Coming next, setting the dye & making your own fabric steamer.
