Still Dyeing

I needed some more threads for a couples of projects I am working on - so another wet afternoon was the perfect time to do this. I have used a variety of cotton and silk yarns including some silk and yak wool threads from Nepal- sold locally in Oakham which have a marvellous texture. The moss green threads in the centre of the photo are Yal wool and silk.

The large aqua bundle of differing threads took the dye well despite many of the threads having a mixed fire composition.  

I presoak the threads in a dilute soda ash solution ( 25g to 1 litre warm water) for an hour or so then drain off the soda ash before dropping concentrated dye pigments onto the threads. They 'cure' overnight then they are rinsed off until clear of dye.

One of my current pieces of work is this piece an impression of the incoming tide at  dawn over Blakeney Salt Marsh. The base is a loose weave linen which I dyed with procion. I then felted on dyed scrims and organzas to achieve the effect I wanted.  Now is the time for some machine couching and hand stitching - hence the thread dyeing!

Trying out some new colours....

Wet and rainy day - just the time to try out some new colour dye pigments - I recently bought some different acid dyes from Landscape Dyes in colours I have not tried before - usually they are the shade I need to mix with my Procion dyes.  I used  Wattle - a rich gold, Sweet Pea, a warm pink and Kelp - a lovely grey green.   I have quite a bit of rayon silky ribbon tape about 5 mm wide which is super for embellishment and ribbon type embroidery - but procion doesn't work - acid dyes do so I had a short session dying them with the acid dyes in an old crock pot - works really well. I also used up the dye with other fibres, silk and cotton and although the cotton dyes a little lighter these dyes gave clear constant colour.

A little bit of hand stitching

Took some time out to finish a little piece I started  a while back - the design emerged from some old sketches of burst seed pods. Using painted felt for some dimensional texture on a dyed background I then  drew the design together with hand stitching.

Over in Houston

Over in Houston at the IQA quilt show - even after 4 days not sure I have seen all the quilts........ what is very obvious this year is the increase in the number of digital art pieces - some were basically photographs stitched over - not my cup of tea...but others were images which were manipulated and over printed and or painted - these I liked more - particularly liked one by the Artist  Wen Redmond where the digital imagery is used to such good effect.

Took a colour theory class with Jane Dunnewold - really helpful - whilst I have always felt confident about using colour and have read so much theory including Albers weighty tome on the subject the hands on colour mixing class was very worthwhile. Photos below

These were the pigments we used  to cover  the 12 basic hues

Colour exercises

Rust

I recently was away in Lancashire on a textile retreat - I was just there doing my own thing, others were taking classes, namely a class on rust. Now rust on fabric has never really inspired me - although I have used it in the past to represent rusty nails in a barn door on a piece - but seeing the results of those on the course tempted me to have a go. One of the reasons I had not been too impressed previously was the time it took to see the results. Things have moved on a bit.......

Anyways, having a few hours to spare, I found lots of scraps of silk, cotton, organza etc and decided to try my own version of rusting........ ( the class had mainly used tea (tannic acid) to rust their pieces and also some red wine.)

I tried the following acids:

• black tea
• Citric acid
• Cream of tartar(tartaric acid)
• white vinegar
• red wine
• rhubarb juice (has some oxalic acid in it)

The basic method was to wrap the rusty bit in the wetted fabric with thread and leave to activate the rust, then leave them to dry- nothing scientific about my approach just had time to 'play' for a couple of hours.

A couple of days later it was clear that things had happened see photos below - all had rusted to some degree - the most disappointing was the red wine that just left a greyish hue and a few specs.

Some of the different pieces that were rusted  laid out together.

I particularly liked the effect of rusty nails on silk organza using lemon juice as the activator, see below

With some rusty tools you can see the imprint of the mark as with the file below, whilst it has worked I think I prefer the more random effects achieved with more nondescript items and wire wool.

I do need to label the pieces so I know which acid reacted on which piece! I do know that the large piece below was wire wool on cotton treated with tartaric acid ( cream of tartar dissolved on warm water)

Having played with the rust - it was fun to see what the results were but it is not something I will pursue; however I have lots of pieces to play with and stitch - I will post how I get on!

Catching up

Well, having spent the last five weeks away from base on an extended break in Europe, I am pleased to be back in my space  getting on with some new work. 

I have been using some of my discharged fabric for a piece for the Voyage group. I used various discharge agents and print blocks to remove the dyed colour before I machine stitched the images, really enjoyed the freedom to machine where I felt appropriate.

Sisterly activity

Well after four marvellous days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham back home with my sisters for company and caught up with some thread dyeing.

My sister Sue, cannot get a decent range of threads when she lives in Andalucia so we decided to produce a range of plain and varigated threads in a range of weights for her to take back with her.

We stranded a selection of white cottons, linen and some silk threads, soaked them in soda ash, drained the soda ash off then added concentrated procion dyes to the thread trays.

We left them to 'cure' overnight then rinsed until clear - it always surprises me that using this method seems to take up all the pigment - very little dye rinses out.  First dried on old towelling then pegged outside to dry. Pleasing result, bright clear colours - but did discover some 'cotton ' perle sold at the FOQ did not take the dye - a little burn test later showed it was some polyester mix thread.