Indigo!

A couple of weeks ago I had a play day with Lynda of Bloom, Bake, Create fame. We had been planning for some time to try out indigo dyeing.  I finally had a day free!  Here are my cotton cloth prints.

I also tried three kinds of silk scarves in the vat but did not leave them in long enough. I attempted to re-dye them the next day in the vat, but it had oxidized too much. I then over-dyed them with a procion dye which actually turned out similar to the indigo dyeing.

On the left, silk chiffon (yummm!), then a silk crepe, and a silk habatoi.

A productive day!

Progress!

Working out in the patio yesterday, I dyed 10 of these…Sweet little onesies for sweet little babies.

Between Monday and Tuesday, I finished 8 new silk scarves and have 3 more waiting to finish.  I need some time to decide how to finish them.  I want to do more wax designs.  There is only one in this group using my new “BIG sponge” stamp. I love the BIG sponge.

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Working, Working, Working

Last week I took advantage of the wonderfully mild weather to get out in the patio and work on silk scarves.  I screened on most of them.  I used deconstructed screen designs, glue designs, and paper resist designs.  Some of my breakdown screens didn’t print very long.  The new silk screens that Julia and I made worked well, but I see mine are starting to stretch a little.  Perhaps that is because I didn’t review Kerr Grabowski’s instructions before we  made them!  This throw together scarf design turned out to be my favorite.  Since I ran out of good breakdown prints, I used other screens and partial designs on it.  Another idea has emerged for me to use for future screening.  I love the contrast of a large bold design over smaller prints.

The other side of this scarf is a bit different, just because with printing by hand you can get lots of variety. This scarf was printed using all three of the types of printing I mentioned earlier. I’m having a great love affair with chartreuse and turquoise this summer, as well as all the blends in between the two that happen when one does not wash the screens between printing.  This scarf is printed on silk charmeuse.

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Today’s Work…

First, rust dyeing some scarves.  I just started these this morning. I will be doing more, but am waiting patiently (?) on my order from Dharma.  These are: one silk satin, one silk crepe, and one silk flat crepe.  It will be interesting to see the differences.  Pictures coming later.

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