Exciting ironing?

A contradiction in terms, you may think – but ironing my indigo pieces was definitely exciting.

First up – the plains and fancies – samples dyed without any shibori at the top, shibori’d or discharged at the bottom.

I’ve had trouble getting the colour of these images to look right – for example, the ‘grey’ piece [middle left] isn’t grey at all, but a slightly greenish blue, because the original colour of the silk was a yellow-cream.

 

 

The sample in the middle at the bottom is the discharged piece you last saw looking like this – bit of a change there.

the one above it to the right is also discharged, with Tiggy’s wooden stamps. It has come out better than I thought it would and is probably good enough to make a little bag for Babybel, which is what I’d planned. I’ve learned never to judge an indigo piece till it’s dry – the contrast is usually stronger than you think it’s going to be.

Cotton muslin tied with rubber bands at the top, habotai silk bound with string at the bottom – each about a metre square.

Both of these are saying ‘scarf’ to me. I think the silk one would make a great beach wrap – if I ever went to the beach with the intention of swimming.

 

 

 

This one was always going to be a scarf, after I’d seen Tiggy’s pole wrapped muslin, though mine is silk noil. I wish I’d given it a few extra dippings, but it’s still pretty.

 

 

I think I enjoy dyeing threads even more than I enjoy dyeing fabric – so I did some of those too.

The wool at the top was going to be a hat for me but it is such a beautiful baby blue [paler than it looks here - one dip only] that I think it will probably become a cardigan for Babyboy – don’t want him to be jealous if his big sister gets a bag…

Most of the threads were from a dyers pack from Texere – there’s cotton, linen, wool, rayon, viscose – and a couple that had lost their labels. The differences in colour are fascinating, given that they all went into the vat at more or less the same time.

And finally – the piece de resistance. [Sorry, couldn’t resist.{Sorry again}].

Again – it’s bluer than it looks here. It was experimental because the resist was tied buttons, which as they were wood – or possibly coconut shell – we thought would take the dye. They didn’t – instead some of the colour from the buttons transferred to the silk, giving a browny green blob in the centre of each circle. It’s a happy accident which I love. I think this is destined to be a wall hanging, perhaps quilted, with some stitch using those dyed threads.

Despite having officially given up quilting, I’m inspired by Tiggy’s sampler quilts to use the smaller pieces to make one – and, despite what I said yesterday, I have a purpose for most of the other fabric. I can still pet it though.

I will need a bit more dyed fabric for a quilt, but this afternoon Wensleydale braved the loft and found a long-unused beer brewing bucket, and its associated heater, which I hope still works. I’ve got a vat, got fabric [just a bit] just need the other ingredients. And some time, as all of this will, of course, have to be fitted in round a bit of degree work – back to college tomorrow to find out what this year has in store for us.

Dyeing in Dorset.

Despite the weather, and the traffic on the way home, A. and I had a great weekend. We went down to Walford Mill for a ‘Dyeing the Blues’ 2 day course with Tiggy Rawling – and had a wonderful time. Tiggy is an excellent teacher, and I would strongly recommend her courses if you want to learn about shibori and indigo dyeing.

On the first day – when we  had a bit of sunshine – some of us tried out dyeing with ferrous sulphate solution [bottom centre, clamped and overdyed with indigo].

Then we tried some shibori – which I have tried before with little success, though A. is expert at it. I was more successful this time – some samples bottom left. I think it helped using thicker thread and slightly heavier fabric, which made it easier to get a good resist.

Then we learned the care and feeding of indigo vats, and got down to the really exciting bit – standing with our hands in a murky, warm, blue green liquid, taking them out, putting them back etc. etc. etc.

Top left is a plain piece, dyed for later discharge [bottom right] with potassium permanganate paste. This was the least successful process for me – I either got too much of the paste, as you can see here, or too little, when I tried using some wooden stamps. I’ll show you what it looks like after discharge when it’s dry!

Top centre is some pole wrapped silk noil, unwrapped top right. I’m very pleased with this, which I think is just about long enough to make a scarf. [While we were dyeing on Saturday, one of the other visitors to the Mill came over and asked A. what the fabric was for. A., very quick wittedly, started talking about cushion covers. We got the feeling that ‘It‘s for stroking’ would not have been an acceptable answer – and A’s indigo dyed silk velvet was definitely for stroking.]

Overnight we all went home and did voluntary homework – some more stitched resist for me and this experimental piece, which I neglected to photograph before it met the indigo. Viscose wool felt, marbles and string. Hairy string, which in this case was not a good idea. The little beads were attached at Tiggy's suggestion so I could tell my dripping blue lumps from other people’s dripping blue lumps. Surprisingly, there seemed to be no doubt about who owned this one…

1. Post dyeing and machine felting bottom left
2. after I'd separated the hairy string from the hairy felt, and removed the marbles top left. A couple of the marbles had already made a bid to escape – hence the holes, which I love. It makes me think of bladderwrack.

On the second day – when it rained – we retreated upstairs at the Mill for more shibori-ing. I did a couple of traditional tie dye targets, an experimental button resisted piece – which got more experimental when I dropped a button and couldn’t find it again, so had to rethink the design - and made lots of hanks of thread and wool. We dyed again in the afternoon when the sun came out, and finished with the discharging I’ve already mentioned.

This afternoon I tackled this lot – rinsing, untying, and washing – show you more when they are dry.

 

 

 

Thoroughly exhausting but great fun – and lots of ideas to try with procion dyes as well as indigo.