Saturday, May 02, 2009

Dye Workshop Weekend!

The Day has finally arrived for our dye workshop. We have a full class with people flying in from other states and local gals too. I was hoping for a dry, sunny day but it has been raining hard for three days and continues to pour buckets…I am taking the ark to the workshop.

I went to the rumdum on Wednesday to buy dye clothes. Is that weird or what? I used to have a whole wardrobe of dye clothes, with spatters, drips, blobs and a multicolored tummy area where the dye usually centers. Even my dye shoes got tossed when we moved. I found I had one pair of reasonable awful shorts to wear that may have been saved for pajamas…not pretty, and a matching tee-shirt. Oh well. It’s not about fashion. It’s about wild dye abandon.

We are going to focus on dye techniques rather than dyeing a large quantity of fabric. We have kept the amounts small (1/4 yard per technique) to experience as many as possible. Plans being what they are, I will be flexible in my expectations. One thing I just decided at the last minute was over dyeing white on white cottons. Carmen Rose my new blog pal has been trying out dyeing with great results and posted these on her blog. Since I never have collected white on white fabrics (well…it never came up til now!) I asked the quilt shop if they had any on hand and of course they did. The white designs are a paint-like ink which acts as a resist and because the fabric has a factory coating only mottled pastels are possible, but who wouldn’t find a way to use these? I am hoping we will have time to play with this idea.

So off we go to dye!

PS…I COULDN’T GET THE SLIDE SHOW TO WORK WHEN I CLICKED ON THE PICTURES AT THE TOP. LET ME KNOW IF IT WORKED FOR YOU.

16 comments:

  1. Slide show works (latest Firefox). And it is great! A colour orgy.

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  2. I'm so envious of your workshop today!!! I've never thought much about dyeing until I started reading some of these great blogs. I especially liked the fabrics in photos 20-22! I would love to see that technique in solids...greens, yellows, etc. Love your blog!

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  3. Anonymous8:30 AM

    SLide show worked for me....luscious fabrics! Makes me want to break out the dyes myself!Have fun at the workshop, I so wish I could be there!

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  4. slideshow worked for me too....those fabrics look amazing. quite jealous of your students today! :)

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  5. Slide show worked... Mozilla Firefox. Have fun!!! I like the dyed white onwhite fabrics. I also like the elmer's glue resist.
    Can't wait to see the resist. I hope someone gets some photos of you in your shorts/pjs/old shoes.

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  6. Have a great day - dyeing is in the air, I'm dyeing 46 scarves today! WooHoo!

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  7. Hi,
    It worked just fine. I love your colours they are so inspirational. Have fun.

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  8. Anonymous2:56 PM

    From your previous blog:You have a drop dead, good looking family....your sister is so very pretty and has that charming smile evident in all of you. (suffering or not) As far as today: I always wanted to take a class in dyeing. Now that I can afford to do it you have taken leave of our part of the woods!! On top of it I should probably think about that other dying and preparing myself for that. A very big birthday awaits me around the bend. Meanwhile I shall content myself by reading and enjoying what you do and how you do it. Thanks.
    Sewsew..

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  9. Anonymous5:50 PM

    Ooh, aah.......Yep, worked for me!Dre in WA

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  10. Anonymous6:37 PM

    Yes the beautiful slideshow worked. Oh how I wish I could be there with you. If I had that beautiful fabric I wouln't care if I ever used it I would just love looking at it. My mind how will not shut down for days and I know I will go back and look at it again.
    Roberta

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  11. Oh! What a stunning bunch of fabric! Great results -- I'll bet your workshop buddies were very happy. Inspirational as always!

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  12. The colors are so beautiful I almost cried. The dyed fingers made me laugh. When my son was five or six I went to pick him up from daycare after a "dyeing day". As I went through the gate, one of the other kids said, "Evan, your mother's feet are BLUE." He looked at them and said, "Eh, she just dyed today." He's used to me being lots of different colors.

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  13. Wish I could have been there to play with the dyes! You know besides overdyeing white on white fabrics, black and white fabrics overdye well too.

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  14. Judy from Npt10:20 PM

    Absolutely loved the slideshow and like all the others, wish I could have been there today too. Your fabrics are absolutely delicious!
    Recently tried overdyeing white on whites and the results were quite pleasing.
    I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I know your students did.
    Is that salt in 20-22 or just lucky bubbles?

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  15. I have been dyeing white-on-white fabrics ever since I started dyeing about five years ago. I love to get a huge piece of a particular fabric, tear it into smaller pieces, and then dye each piece a different colorway. That way, I get my very own "line" of fabrics.

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  16. Anonymous11:27 AM

    Me too, I love it all, esp. slides 20-22. How did you do those?

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Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com