Fun with Surface Design
Gee, I had fun today! I met up with some of my fiber art buddies for play and experimentation.
After donning our face masks, we opened the dye powder jars and were ready to get going.
NOTE: Dye powder is very harmful. You MUST wear a mask when handling it!
Click any image for a larger view
First, Jill showed us how to do ice dying. Below, Marlyn is adding dye powder to hers.
And this is what mine looked like after I added fuschia and two different yellow dyes.
How exciting! (I’m now being VERY disciplined and letting it sit still until the 24 hour mark.)
Next, Andrea showed us a bunch of ways to do screen printing.
In addition to using prepared screens, she showed us how to use a variety of objects as resists. These included glue, newspaper, and freezer paper, shown below. After placing freezer paper spirals on dark fabric, she pulled yellow and red paints through the screen.
An added bonus: after applying paint the cut outs can be lifted and used as stamps. See the foreground spiral as an example.
After seeing all this, I played with freezer paper cutouts, glue resist, “painting” several clean up rags, and painters tape as a resist. Where are the photos, you ask? Well gee, a girl can’t be expected to stop playing in order to take pictures now can she? (I’ll show the results after the fact, though. Deal?)
It sure was great to play and to be with frends!! Hope you’re having fun, too.
Ellen Lindner
Ellen-
I was horrified by the photo of all the dye powder jars sitting wide open, waiting to be used.
Ack! Did no one tell you that the powder is dangerous? Were you all wearing masks?
EXCELLENT
EXCELLENT point, Kim! Yes, we all wore masks. (But no one wanted me to post those photos.)
Thanks for worrying about us. I’ll update the post to include a warning.
Please do show us pictures of your fabric when it’s finally all done! I dye fabric, but haven’t tried this method as it always sounded really hard, but your picture makes it easier than I thought.
Yes, I’m also curious about this form of dyeing which seems to be very popular. I didn’t realise you don’t mix the dye into a liquid form, but use it in powder form.
Right, Sue. I guess using the powder full strength is what gives the intense colors.
BTW, I was surprised that the colors don’t mix very much. I’ll post my result soon.