No pictures today, but I am busy dyeing fabric. I’ve been wanting to try some shibori style dyeing, and after Pat’s mini demo at last week’s RAFA meeting, I purchased some sewer pipes at Home Depot Saturday night.
Monday I washed all the fabric in synthrapol and let it air dry – my part for trying to conserve energy when I dye fabric.
Tuesday I sewed some fabric tubes, and folded and sewed some curved lines in a fabric bundle.
Wednesday night I wrapped my poles.
Do you get the idea that shibori dyeing is not a quick process?
Finally this morning was dye day!!!
I mixed my dye powders at 5% – 5 grams of MX Procion dye powder to 100 ml of water and they dissolved beautifully. So far so good.
My soda ash solution was rather low, so I mixed a new batch. Put the lid on my gallon container and proceeded to shake to dissolve the soda ash. That bottle started leaking from every which way – the lid, the sides, the bottom. I got soda ash all over my kitchen and laundry room floor, my sandaled feet, my clothes. You name it, it got a soda ash bath. That’s what happens when you use a plastic milk jug to hold soda ash for a year. I’ll never do that again.
Okay, I dumped what I had left of the solution into another container, rinsed my nice leather sandals (they are my dye sandals, but they are still nice comfy ones with arch support), my feet, my legs, washed the floor, washed the floor again because I have a cat who thinks she’s a vacuum cleaner and licks the floors all the time, then ate some breakfast.
Fortified by a bowl of Cheerios, I mixed the salt solution, then made multiple trips outside to carry buckets, fabric wrapped poles, dye concentrate, soda ash, string and scissors.
Got the first pole in the bucket and realized I needed a larger bucket. By the time I got back outside with a larger bucket, the first one had fallen over. Half the liquid was now in the grass, the pole was rolling around in the lawn, and I was not a happy camper.
Okay, I picked up the pole and the bottom wrapping string broke. My beautifully wrapped fabric started gracefully unfolding from the pole. By this point you’d think I’d be swearing. Nope, I started to laugh, which I truly believe is a precursor to hysteria.
Okay, I shoved that pole into the bigger bucket trying to catch as much of the wet, dripping, pooling tube of fabric as I could under the pole, and tied that pole to a support. More salt water was added and then the soda ash. Last I checked, it’s still standing.
Onto the second bucket. Filled the container with salt water, added the dye concentrate, put in the poles and the container wasn’t deep enough again. Obviously, I have real issues with gauging what size containers I need for shibori dyeing.
Okay, went inside to get a larger one and you can pretty much well guess what I found by the time I got back outside. There were my 2 poles, upside down, with the fabric saluting the sun. sigh
The saddest part about that was it had to go back into the same small container because the 2 pole arrangement I had tied, didn’t fit in any of my deeper dye containers. The openings were all too narrow.
Okay, so an inch of this fabric is sticking up out of the dye bath. If dye wicks up, fine; if it doesn’t, tough toenails. It can always be overdyed. The good news was the string didn’t break when it fell out of the container, so there is a prayer I’ll actually get a shibori look on this piece.
Tomorrow, I’ll take a picture of the fabric so all can see, but for now, I’m going to read some email, put my feet up, and not look outside. I’m a wee bit afraid of what I might find next. 😉
Diane's Fiber Art 