Dyeing Again

The past few days I've been discharging, overdyeing and doing 3 layer parfaits. 

I started with previously dyed fabrics for discharging.  I started with decolorant and stenciled a few fabrics.  After they dried I steamed the fabric to activate the decolorant.  I was not very satisfied with the results. 

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I had expected a much clearer design result.  It could have been that I didn't use enough, but felt if I used more, it would have leaked under the stencil and given a blurred image.  I'll have to try again using a different approach. 

I went back to my usual discharging of using soft scrub wigth stencils, thermofax screens and circles with a bleach pen.  The soft scrub reacts fast, then rinse and soak in anti-chlor to stop the bleach reaction.  I never know what the discharge coloring will be, but thats part of the excitement. 

My plan after discharging was to overdye the fabrics with thickened dyes and the same stencils.  I mixed the thickener with diluted dyes for the colors I wanted.  Some were dark enough to work, others weren't and didn't show up.  Lesson 1 - learned that I should have used straight dye solution with the thickener to make it more concentrated.

Below are ones that did turn out good.  A couple I overdyed several times with different colors.

I also fold dyed fabric using different folding methods , then dipped the edges into the dyes.  Lesson 2- don't squeeze out excess dye.  this spreads the dye too much and end up with mushy designs.

Towards the end I didn't squeeze the fabric and got clearer results. 

The last day I used up extra dye and made a couple sets of 3 layer parfaits.  On the right I started with first layer of orange/brown mix, layer 2-dark red, layer 3- brown.  Each layer absorbed some of the next color layer and worked out good.   On the lef,t I started with green, layer 2-navy, and layer 3-purple.  The colors were too closely related and color mixes didn't come out as clearly.

The next ones I used half yard pieces instead of fat quarters.  Left side I started with yellow/green, layer 2- dark green, and layer 3-brown.  the colors flowed nicely through all layers.  The right side layer 1-red/violet, layer 2-purple, and layer 3-gray.  These 3 fabrics basically kept that layers color.

I was happy with most of my work and fabrics that didn't turn out I decided to paint instead.  It was a productive few days and am now waiting for some sunny days with little humidity to try flour paste resist.

Discharge Monday

Monday was discharge day. Discharge with bleach. I used several blacks manufactured by different companies, my hand dyed fabric and commercial batiks. I wanted to see if there were any differences with the blacks and how the batiks and hand dyes would bleach out. I also used bleach thickener on some.

Below are some of my samples.

The top fabric was shiboried with a 50% bleach and 50% water solution on a Robert Kaufman black fabric. The bottom was taped with pieces of masking tape and sprayed with the 50/50 bleach solution using Timeless Treasures black fabric, this came out a peachy/cream color that I really like.

The left fabric was a hand dyed fabric that started out a very dark blue/green. I used a cut-out of a tree branch from a stencil I carved for another project and sprayed 50/50 bleach, water solution. The results really surprised me. The right was a hand dyed fabric that started as a red/violet. I used 2 TBS bleach thickener and 1/4 c of bleach and 1/8 c water, and sponged with a couple different pieces of foam sponges.

The left fabric was twisted in a swirl and squirted 50/50 bleach and water solution in the folds. This was an unknown black batik. The right was a Gee's Bend dark red solid that I shiboried with a 50/50 bleach solution. Another real favorite.

The left was a hand dyed fabric I squirted with yellow and blue dyes and swished around. I used a purchased stencil on it with thickened bleach. The right was a blue/green hand dyed fabric that I used a Clorox bleach pen on for water ripples.

These are commercial batiks that I used purchased stencils with bleach thickener.

After the fabrics bleached to the colors I wanted I rinsed in water, then put in Anti-Chlor solution for about 15 minutes, rinsed again and then machine washed and ironed.

I had a great time experimenting with this process and will do again later this summer.

Bleach Discharge Session

Last weeks fabric dyeing led to bleach discharging this week. I used a bleach pen, spray mister, and stencils on the fabrics below.

Then I folded fabrics, dipped the folds in bleach solution, the dark areas are the original fabric. Squiggles were made with a bleach pen, and a sprayed over stencil were done on the bottom fabrics.

I then tried using a commercial batik. The left is the original, the right was discharged with a bleach pen.

Each fabric was a surprise when discharged, didn't know what color any of the fabrics would change to. All were happy surprises.

At our guild meeting Tuesday, my students from the Beginner Hand-Dyeing class brought in their fabrics for show and tell. I think they're happy with the results.

Hand-dyeing Class

Last Tuesday, I taught a class at my guild (Warwick Valley Quilters Guild, web site http://www.wvqg.com/ ) on hand-dyeing fabric. The process I taught was low water immersion, a simple beginners course. They did basic colors, then some tints and shades, and ended with a couple of tie-dyes. Below are some pictures of the students. Don't they look like they're having fun!

They will be bringing in the finished results this coming Tuesday at our meeting. Will have some pictures of their work then.

I had some dyes left over (couldn't waste the dyes) so the next day I did some dyeing.

I also painted some dyes onto soda ash soaked black on white fabrics. I just squirted dyes on the fabric and smooched it around with my hands.

I used a lot of black dye mixed with red, blue, green and violet. These I plan to discharge. They're actually much darker than the picture.

The weather has been so rainy........I don't know when I'll get to do this.