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Saturday, August 06, 2011

Eco Dyeing





I had this gorgeous bouquet of roses in the most glorious colorway so I wanted to savor them and try my hand at eco dyeing. I had some silk pieces on hand (habotai and dupioni) that had been mordanted with Alum a while ago for a class I was taking and that had never been used - I wet the silk; spread the petals (from 2 dozen roses), some leaves and the hips before layering the fabric accordian style. I bundled it up, tied it tightly, put it in a pot of boiling water with a tiny bit of lemon and cherry Koolaid as the fabric was just so white! then I wrapped it with saran wrap and sat out in the heat for a couple of days.









this is it being unwrapped; the habotai took the color better than the dupioni; very subtle and so delicate - I love it!














The other pieces were ho hum so I found (actually my husband found) some really rusted barrel hoops that I wrapped it around after rewetting it- this WAS supposed to be an experiment after all - wrapped it again with saran wrap and left it out in the elements. I loved the black marks made by the rusty hoops.








Still not totally satisfied with the background, I used some blackberries that I'd saved in the freezer - cooked and strained them before wrapping the fabric in rubber bands and re-dyeing - I just love how it turned out. I have rinsed it but I'm going to leave it to cure for a while before I try felting with it.






















It is so dull today so the pictures aren't great - you truly can't see the subtle colors and the gorgeous sheen - the dark rust marks are just so neat - I love them! - I had no idea that the rust would turn black. I'm really interested now in pigment dyeing and have been gathering information and learning all I can - that will be my next experiment, I think.












FUNDRAISING GALA











Ann, an internet friend from NC is involved in a special fundraiser for the hospital where her husband works - I've donated this "circles" (one of my favorites) silk and merino vest to their cause for Breast Cancer and I'm sure they have plenty of other goodies too.




Ready to Go!

Silk and wool eyeglass case from Etsy
packed and ready to mail to it's new owner!