Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

My local art quilt group, the Dirty Dozen Fiber Artists,  had a dyeing day recently, at Ruth Anne’s “barn.”

We started with Gabriele explaining wet cyanotype to us.

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

It’s similar to sun printing, but with chemically treated fabric that turns dark blue. That is, until you add water to the process. After that the results are much less predictable, but always interesting.

The treated fabric is sprayed with water and greenery or other resist items are placed on it. Glass is secured tightly on top to hold it all in place, and it’s put in the sun.

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

After a few hours it’s ready to come inside for curing, rinsing and drying. This involves leaving it in a dark environment for a while and a few other techniques. Finally, it’s ready.

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

And the backs are pretty, too. I think I’ll use them as yardage and actually cut them up as needed.

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

Sandy taught us about low immersion dyeing. She’s very subdued. NOT!

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

A common technique with low immersion dyeing is to manipulate the fabric in some fashion and to put it into a small space with the dye, so it stays in that shape. This prevents the dye from spreading evenly and interesting mottled colors can be achieved.

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

These are some of my resulting fabrics. Very useful, right?

Dirty Dozen Dye Day. Ellen Lindner, AdventureQuilter.com/blog

We also did ice dyeing that day and I’ll show you that in my next post.

I’m SO lucky to have this intrepid group of fiber artists to hang out with!

Ellen Lindner

 

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One Response to Dirty Dozen Dyeing Day

  1. Andrea Luliak February 27, 2019 at 11:46 pm #

    You guys look as if you had a wonderfully productive day learning all kinds of techniques. And then you get to go home with beautiful, creative, one of a kind fabrics! What fun! Miss you all!

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