#fiber dying

[ravenstolethemoon]

Dying Day! My mother came out to help me in the studio yesterday, and we decided to take advantage of the two person workforce and do a good sized batch of silk fiber dying! It's lovely to have help with this, as it's kind of an assembly line style project. I mixed colors while she pressed air bubbles out of the fiber and put them in to microwave to heat up. Then I rinsed them out and layed them out to dry as she pulled them out and checked the tempurature It's a nice color selection I think, for upcoming projects

[ripplestitchskein]

This week’s dying adventures:

Burgundy and Emerald Firestar

Burgundy, Emerald, Silver Grey, Golden Yellow and Orange Yellow (mistake) Corriedale Cross Wool.

(As always, lighting not ideal.)

[ravenstolethemoon]

Dyed silk fiber Right after dyeing vs fully dry (2 days later) We experimented a bit with tempurature, and I'm pleased with the result. I had really not been getting the dye bath quite hot enough in the past, I think. The colors came out a bit more vibrant than usual when heating to *just* below boiling. I'd always been wary of overheating, so had been a bit too cautious I can't wait to make paper with these!

[ravenstolethemoon]

WIP: Reds on the River Over-dying The second, lighter green I made came out WAY to bright to work with the subtle greens already in this piece. Rather thsn making more paper, I decided to cut the shapes out and over-dye them. The trick here is to use a very soft brush, and pretty much soak/saturate the paper very gently rather than "brushing" the dye on. Otherwise you run the risk of scuffing up the fibers and losing much of the sheen of the paper Well see how these dry, and if the color is *still* wrong I'll give in and make another sheet