Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Snow-Dyeing

During our last snow fall I decided to try snow-dyeing. Recently there has been a lot of hiipe about it on the web and it really intrigued me. So, when the snow started falling I got out my dyes and snow shovel and got to work.

My first attempts I mixed full concentrated dyes with snow and covered the mixture over soda ash soaked fabric.

Fushia and sky blue on the left and sky blue on the right.

Fushia and fire red on the left and fire red and golden yellow on the right.



Black
I waited till the snow melted, about 4 hours, then left the fabric cure overnight. Rinsed, washed, and ironed. Below are the results.


Fushia and sky blue.

Sky blue accordion pleatedFire red and golden yellow.Black, it came out a purple
Second try I diluted the dye with water, as I would doing low water immersion dyeing, mixed with snow and covered soda ash soaked fabric. Chino and gold yellow


Ultra violet



Navy and gold yellow



Burgundy and gold yellow

I let the snow melt (again about 4 hours) and let cure overnight. Rinsed, washed and ironed.
Below are these results.


Chino and gold yellow



Ultra violet

Navy and gold yellow


Burgundy and gold yellow
The results were not quite as dark as the first ones but gave just as interesting results.
Using this method, you can't get duplicate results, but thats the fun with this method.
Can't wait for it to snow again!!

3 comments:

Martha C. Hall said...

Good to see you blogging again! I'm going to try to do some snow dyeing too, but first have a paid job I must work on. Can't wait to see your next batch!

Arlene Delloro said...

Hildy just emailed me that you're doing your dyeing workshop again. Great news! I love the results you got snow dyeing. I bought the supplies, hoping to dye outside in the fall, then went back to work part time. Soon, though!

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

Great snow dyeing pieces, I like how the black one worked out. It is really fascinating how the pigments work.