More dyeing at home

I'm doing a bunch of experiments this week with Procion MX cold water dyes and cotton. I am going to make a bunch of swatches to really understand how the color works. I'm also playing with folding the fabric to get interesting patterns. 

Tomorrow's batch

Fabric Dyeing at Home

After some inspiration from last weekend's Fabric Dyeing Workshop, I decided to set up my home studio for textile arts. I got a few yards of cotton and linen in white, and washed out the sizing with dish soap. For color, I'm using Jacquards Procion MX dyes. I took a couple of swatches of cotton, folded them up, and bundled them with rubber bands. Then into the dye for about two hours:

And here they are unfolded, but not yet dry:

This is so easy and fun. I'm looking forward to really exploring this space.

Fabric workshop with Lynne Brotman

Last Saturday I went to a workshop on fabric dyeing by Lynne Brotman. It was a really fun and informative introduction to textile arts, and I am looking forward to trying out many of these techniques at home. Here's some photos I took from the workshop.

Painting with a soy wax resist

Overdyeing with turquoise blue

Here's what it looks like with the wax removed

Folded cotton, dipped in a soy wax resist

Into the fuchsia dye!

Unfolded, with the wax scrubbed off

Silk Charmeuse swatches by Lynne Brotman

Peony II

Another element for my peony patterns.

Peonies -- Work in Progress

I'm working on a motif for some spring floral patterns. Peonies are my favorite flower.

India Prints

Tonight's pattern doodle is inspired by all the block printing and interesting motifs I saw in India. Included are architectural elements, the moon, sweets, temple bells, cobras, and the lotus flower.

Scales