BLOOD, SWEAT AND LUSCIOUS COLOUR!

LESSON 4......Right roll your sleeves up and concentrate!

Here’s a photo of my attempts at the Colour wheel Spectrum. I’m afraid there wasn’t time to take photos!

I was with the mad ones on the course and had to have a go dyeing them all in the one go!!

It was a bit of a sweat on.

It was so intense setting out 12 jugs.

Keeping to the right measurements for the 12 separate dye colours, particularly at adding the Salt & Soda stage

But fab fun.

My last purple looks like a reddy brown? But I see that in the student Gallery at the Quilt University a couple of peoples fabric were the same colour...so maybe not wrong!

The true yellow, red and blue are not as noticeably mottled and when I commentated on the Discussion board the tutor asked how many times had I squeezed and flipped the fabric!

So, I will remember next time to not squeeze twice and flip twice. (oo must ensure I make a note of squeeze and flip times for my folder). 
And they sat like flowers on a very warm window sill.

BEAUTIFUL!

Rinsing...rinsing....aching arms!....

Whoo Lesson 2 I enjoyed this too!!


I think I have achieved more intense colours this time.

I’m guessing the water stayed warmer for longer...perhaps!

The jugs of fabric and dye were resting on top of my laundry drier (saving on the chore of hanging out to dry the weeks now clean laundry!) keeping the liquid warmer for longer.

The purple had 3-4 tones in there ranging from light blue to deep violet. The exciting part of pulling this colour out is that while it was in the jug it just looked very dark and all one tone.

I love the secondary colours...especially the green. The mottling on the green was subtle, regularly irregular (!), 2 colours/tones.

Arrhhh little did I suspect that after rinsing...rinsing.... aching arms!....rinsing some parts of the pattern formed in ‘waves’ across the fabric.


The orange was out first to be rinsed right on the hour, followed by green then purple. The purple took so long to rinse...I know I’m repeating myself!

I think I will do more scrunching of fabric on the next go.

The orange has the most colour contrast between the light and dark.

I pinched some dye from here whilst the dye was still fresh...I couldn’t help myself I wanted a go at the Shibori Bonus lesson...then chickened out when I saw how much dye the folded fabric drank!
So the orange was sitting in less liquid than others.

Just waiting for the Shibori to rinse and dry. And I’ll save them for next time!


And just a little sneak preview on some buttons I've bought to sell in my online shop http://www.fibredreams.co.uk/!

Freshly Coloured Fabric.

My decking looked lovely last Sunday with the freshly coloured fabrics moving in the breeze!

They reminded me of the Medieval jousting tournaments with brightly coloured fabrics gently flapping from poles and tents!

Ha and talking about breeze with the instructions and advice of the course tutor the process of dyeing the fabric was a breeze too!

The first lesson was dyeing the three primary colours using the full immersion technique.
The salt and the soda ash were added a bit at a time.

 

I’m most pleased with the fabric from the show, 100% unbleached cotton.
Although the American Muslin is good too!
It’s all in the mixing of the chemicals....oh and the stirring...10-12 times in the last hour....yes I failed at that! Well the hour went so fast and I was doing something else...the red juice was so enjoyable after concentrating so hard!!

The picture above shows the experimental one after the main dye has been used.

The tutor told us to do it!! She writes that she wanted us to find out why certain amounts of dye are linked to dyeing amounts....

I can’t describe how I felt during and after all this fun!
I do know I felt relieved that there wasn’t mucky or bizarre colours’ hanging there!

The second lesson is already up on the Quilt Uni to start when you're ready...I'm doing mine tomorrow after walking the dog and buying some food...well I have to eat too!

Lesson 2 is achieving mottling patterns on the fabric and mixing the Secondary colours of Orange, Purple and Green...so looking forward to tomorrow!
I'll post the pctures of the results!