Over-dyeing with low-immersion dyeing

The other day, I did some immersion dyeing and did not like how these two folded pieces turned out. My brown dye ended up very pink (it was very old dye).

 Detail.

 I decided to over-dye them using low-immersion dyeing, but scrunched them, instead of folding them.  I put 1 cup of Procion Olive Green (2 tsp in one cup of water) added my scrunched damp fabric, then poured in 1 cup of Procion Golden Yellow (2 tsp in one cup of water).  I let it sit for 20 minutes, then added my soda ash water (3 tsp soda ash dissolved in one cup of water). I let it sit for 2 hours, then rinsed the fabric out.  I should have probably waited a bit longer, but still like the results and it is a huge improvement.  I would definitely cut these into smaller pieces, as I still don't like how strong the line pattern is from the first dye.

State Fair, cows and quilts

We went to the Nebraska state fair last year and really enjoyed it, so decided to make it a tradition. Just like last year, I made Allen go look at the cows (still planning on more cow art and needed photo references) and the quilts.

We also watched the Galaxy Girl show and it was a bit crazy. This acrobat is hanging from her neck and spinning, while the guy on the motorcycle is driving her around this circular track suspended in the air.

A goat and some cows. It got some better cow shots this year than last year.

I liked the quilts that were a bit less traditional.

By LaVonne Rosso

By Eleanor Gillett

By Susanne Milbourn

Marilyn Heins, this took her 920 hours

This was probably my favorite, and was hung up really high, so I had to fix some distortion in Photoshop and had to crop it a bit.

I also want to do some flower art, so took some photos in the flowers/flower arranging area.

We ate some carnival food, looked as some vendor booths, and had a great day at the Fair.

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!

Crane monoprints

The last couple weeks I have been working on crane monoprints.  I made a bunch of background papers in a few colorways, then printed the cranes.

I made a new stencil of flying cranes. 

I am going to do some other prints of a crane close up, similar to my cow prints. For those, I have to do another layer adding more color and detail to the crane shape, then do the black detail stencil.

Puddle painting fabric

I finally realized it was summer and I should do some fabric painting outdoors. I have a fabric collage project in mind and wanted a bunch of different kinds of fabrics painted in similar colors.

I really like painting with my Setacolor transparent paints since I can dry/heat set them in the sun (instead of all the rinsing and washing that goes with dyeing fabric).  To get a mottled effect in my paint colors, I like to do what I call "puddle painting". I use a plastic lid that has a recessed section, pour my paints on it, then sop up the paint with damp fabric. You can see my original post with step by step photos here. In my original post, I just laid the fabric on plastic tablecloths or plastic drop cloths. These paints are light sensitive, so if the fabric is slightly wrinkled or rippled, these will "sun print" onto the fabric. This time I stretched and pinned my fabrics on my large foam insulation boards to avoid this.

Here are my fabrics. (The "teal" color is not from the Setacolor transparent line, so will not sun print, but works fine for puddle painting).

I really wanted some dark fabrics for contrast.

This piece was previously ice dyed, but had way too much pink. The paint covered some of the pink but not the whole ice design. (The chevrons are embroidered on, originally ivory fabric with blue variegated chevrons).

Two more mediocre ice dyed pieces that were then painted.  I wish I had taken pictures of the ice dyed fabrics that I made last week, but they were so "blah" that I didn't make the effort. Now that they look good, I wish I had "before" pictures.

I tried to avoid having bubbles, but the seams on this fabric made it impossible. You can see how the wrinkles and bubbles have sun printed onto the fabric. Not a fan of the wrinkles, but love the eyelet edging!

This one is not dry yet, but I was trying for a "sunset" look and am happy how it came out.

This piece is not dry yet, it is interfacing (I think it is fusible).

And I just keep finding fabric to paint, so here's some more.

This is a polyester sheer. I decided to include wrinkles so they would sun print.

 I love the look of this. I have done this with polyester sheers before, but this fabric is fantastic.

So I did it again, with a shiny polyester and it looks good too.

And then let's try the first polyester again, but this time with different colors.

 Detail

And this is the same technique on (previously ice-dyed) cotton, not nearly as interesting.

Next in the fabric stash are some lace pieces.

And then let's do some sun printing with stencils.

Shiny ombre polyester, painted with blues and purples and sun printed with stencils.

Sheer royal blue polyester painted with purple, blue, and black and sun printed with stencils.

Even the rag I used to clean my puddle palette between colors turned out interesting.

Not a bad stash for a day's work, now I need to find time to work on the fabric collage.