Ice dyeing

I had a 20 lb bag of ice in the freezer and I had the itch to do some ice dyeing again.  I can tell autumn is coming and the time to do these outside activities is now. (I have done ice and snow dyeing inside in the winter, but find it is much easier doing it outside).

I wanted to make some blue sky type fabrics, and thought I would try some green/brown/gold fabrics as well, which are not colors I typically choose.

I did not take pictures of my process, but I use large tubs, and clip aluminum window screening to them. I soak my fabric in soda ash (I planned to soak them a half an hour, but they ended up soaking 4 hours). I wrung the fabric out, then squished/scrunched it and set it on top of the window screen covered tubs. I add ice, so all the fabric is covered. Then I sprinkle Procion dyes on until all the ice is covered (while wearing a mask to avoid breathing in the loose particles).  I have used liquid dyes before, but I like the results better with powdered dyes

Here are my results.

Oddly, I used Procion aqua marine, turquoise, teal, bright blue, and medium blue, yet my fabric looks more purple than blue. This is 100% cotton sheet.

Detail.

 

I also did some 60%cotton/40%linen, but the patterns where less distinct since it has a looser weave. Also, I got a lot of concentrated spots, which happens when there is not enough ice.

This is silk dupioni that was previously painted with Jaquard Textile paint, you can see the original fabric in this post. It was looking very pink after it dried, so I thought I would over-dye it blue, and it would look more purple.  This picture makes it look very blah, but in person it kind of looks like aged copper (with purples and blues).

In the second tub, I used Procion Bronze, Golden Yellow, Rust Orange, Antique Gold, Avocado, and Olive Green.  This is the first time I have used Olive Green and I absolutely love it. On my ice dyes, it became a gray green that I really like.
Cotton.

Cotton

Silk (I only soaked the silk in soda ash for 15 minutes. It is my understanding the soda ash can damage silk).

I had a couple other pieces, but they were similar. I am somewhat sad that my blue fabric looks more like purple, but I loved discovering I like Olive Green, which was unexpected!

Adding Shiva paintsticks to a whole cloth quilt

Last month, I had sewn up some whole cloth quilts, roughly 16" x 20", using some ice dyed fabrics. I had quilted and then painted two of them, which can be seen here.  I have two more that I had started, and I worked on one this weekend.

Here is my quilt with stitched clouds. I wanted the clouds to be more defined, so I decided to add white at the top of each cloud.

I used a white Shiva oil stick and a stencil brush to apply it.  After removing the waxy coating from the stick, I rubbed it on a piece of freezer paper.  Then I rubbed the stencil brush into the paint and then applied it to the fabric.  I could have used the oil stick directly on the fabric, but it would have been more opaque than I wanted.

Here is the finished piece.  After letting the paint air dry a couple days, I will iron it to heat set it.

I still have one more whole cloth quilt to finish, it has big pink flowers.  I have done the free-motion stitching, and will probably add some Setacolor transparent paints to enhance the colors. Off to the studio to finish it!

Painted art quilts

I have a bunch of ice dyed fabrics, but was kind of stumped what to do with them.  I thought I'd make some quilts (roughly 16"x 20") and brayer paint on them.  Could be a tragedy, or could be cool, right?

Here is my first one, I really hate this Jade Green color. I do not free motion quilt very often, and I can tell how rusty I am, on these jaggedy looking swirls.  I drew one line of the swirls before I started quilting (not that it helped), but I didn't have much of a plan other than that.

I did measure these circles vertically so they would go from big to small (I drew lines with spacing at about 1 3/4" at one end and 1" at the other), but did not draw the circles ahead of time, or the horizontal spacing.

Here is my work station. I just brayered the paint on. I did not clean the brayer between colors. This took a lot of paint. The amount shown in this picture is laughable, it would probably only cover 2" x 2".

It looks pretty cool.

Here are the swirls. I really like it and think my swirls look better painted, for some reason. When I started, I thought I'd make them white with a hint of color, but I really liked the mix of colors. I may add more paint, and/or hand stitching.

Here are the circles. I do like the mix of colors, but find the pattern kind of boring.  I am thinking of making a much smaller art quilt and mounting it in the middle, leaving about a  4" border all around.

I really like the look of these, but I am somewhat sad that more of the ice dyeing isn't visible. I thought more of it would show adjacent to the stitched lines.

I already have two more quilts made, but think I will try another technique with them, maybe break out the Shiva paint sticks for those.

What do you think?  Do you think the swirly one needs a bit more work?

Ice dye results, and Seattle visit

This weekend I was on the Olympic Peninsula visiting my step-son. The weather was pretty chilly but we did do a one mile walk to this waterfall.

I also bought myself some pretties. A few fat quarters, some dyed silk (the blue) and some dyed wool. 

Now that I'm back, I ironed all the fabrics from my ice dyeing last week.This should be layer one from the first pot. Cobalt/Carmine/Hot Pink.

Layer two had two pieces of fabric. This layer was Azure and Emerald Green.

Here you can see the original white pattern on the fabric is still visible. It adds a little something to the fabric. It shows on the back side as well, but is much more subtle.

 I had a piece of silk in there too.

 
This is the first layer of the second pot. Bronze/Golden Yellow/Avocado.

 And a detail.

 Second layer, Deep Purple/Bronze/Pomegranate

 

 Detail.

Last layer, Hot Pink/Azure/Emerald Green

That is all of the ice dyeing! It is fun and the results are always unexpected!

I did some other dyeing as well. I was experimenting with removing color and redyeing, and I tried it on Kona and standard cotton. The color removed better on the standard cotton, but the dye is a bit more vivid on the Kona. The color looks different on them as well.

Kona, purple.

Cotton, purple.

Kona, maroon.

Cotton, maroon.

I am going to put quite a few of these for sale on Etsy tomorrow if anyone is interested!


I didn't finish up the homemade journals today.  I ended up making chocolate banana bread and shrimp and chorizo stuffed peppers and just ran out of time.  I'll finish and post those tomorrow!

More ice dyeing, layered in a pot

I bought about two yards of this fabric at the thrift store and thought I would ice dye it. It has a white printed pattern on it.  When dyeing this kind of fabric, the print stays white and the rest of the fabric accepts the dye.

This is sometimes called "parfait" dyeing (layering fabric/ice/dye). I cut my fabric into fat quarters so I have eight pieces. I am only dyeing 6 of them this way.

I soaked my fabric in water with soda ash for about an hour.

I am using a large enamel pot, and put an enamel strainer in the bottom. As the ice melts, I don't want the fabric to sit in the puddle of water in the bottom of the pot. The strainer is about 1 1/2" high.

I squish my fabric so it fits in my enamel pot. 

I then add a layer of ice.

I sprinkled Procion MX dye powder on top, three colors and less than a teaspoon of each. I then did another layer of fabric/ice/dye powder. The first pot I only got two layers. The second pot, I got three layers.

I threw in a piece of sheer that I was pretty sure was polyester. Sure enough, it didn't dye.

I will show the results on Monday!

Soy wax resist

 I have taken some fabric dyeing classes from Jo Fitsell (awesome lady, awesome teacher) so have done soy wax resist previously in her classes.  I went to the fancy local art supply store to buy soy wax (actually stopped by twice about two weeks apart) and they were always out.  I really did not want to have to order online and pay for shipping.  While I was reading up on soy wax resist on the internet, someone talked about using microwavable soy wax that was meant for candle making, but using it for fabric resists.  Hello Michael's, here is my 40% off coupon, and we were off and running. I went to the thrift store and bought a Corningware dish with a handle and a lid that was microwave safe.  It was not super big, so I could fit about half the wax in it.  I microwaved it a minute at a time, as the directions said to be very careful as it could catch fire.  Once it was melted, I put the lid on it and I took it outside to my outside table setup (the lid was nice as I didn't have to worry about spilling hot wax on myself while walking there).  For this adventure, I had my standard 6'x 2.5' table. On top of this I put my two pieces of insulation board next to each other, which I typically use for sun printing. I taped them together with blue painters tape.  This made my work surface about 6' x 6'.  I then taped two layers of blueprint paper on top, as the wax will leak through the fabric and I didn't want it harming my insulation board.

I did not pin down my fabrics. I just set them on top of the paper. Once I added marks with the soy wax, I moved them onto the grass in the shade while the wax hardened. I used a 2" wide coarse paint brush from Home Depot. It is my understanding the brushes should be natural hair, not synthetic.  I also like to use a metal spoon to dribble and sort of write with (this is now a craft spoon and cannot be used for food). I own one tjanting tool and used it a bit, but not much.

This fabric is a somewhat heavy silk that had been dyed previously but was dreadfully boring. I added circles and dribbles.

Below is an ice dyed fabric that I want to make look like a galaxy or constellation. It is hard to see the wax, I did a sphere offset to the left from the center, a couple of oval rings around it and spattered wax to mimic stars.

 This is another ice dyed fabric also to become a space quilt.  I have a large blob offset to the left and splatters radiating from it. The first picture is when I was just starting and the second is after I was done applying wax.

 

This was a previously folded and dyed piece of silk, I added lines (the dark ones are the wax) and spatters.

 This is a silk that had color removed and was re-dyed and still was super boring. I used the bottom of a soda can to make the circles.

The wax should look dark on the fabric, not white. If it is white, check the back side of the fabric and make sure the wax is penetrating through the fabric. If it is not penetrating, the wax needs to be a little warmer.  There are lots of white spots on my fabrics, but from the back side they all penetrated.

Also, please note that when you put your fabrics in the shade and go work on another piece, make sure you move the pieces as the shade moves. The wax will re-melt if left in the sun. I had an "Ack!" moment during this session.

My soy wax pieces have hardened, so they get a dip in my dye batches. Today we have dark cherry (with black added), blue (with some black added) and a mix of Wasabi and Olive Green. When bucket dyeing, the fabric, and therefore the wax, will get scrunched, which will create interesting cracks in the wax. 

Next time, the results.

Ice dying, finished fabric

Here are the fabrics from my ice dyeing.

1st batch, blue, jade, and bronze:

 2nd batch, blue, jade, bronze and bright yellow:

 

 1st batch: purple, blue, and dark cherry:

 2nd batch, purple, blue, black cherry, and bright yellow:

Always fun, always unexpected results. I hope you give it a try some time.  I am off to do some Setacolor sun printing.