Dyeing “Problems”
I’ve created quite a few butt-ugly fabrics during my dying experiments. (No offense to butts!) However, I know that I can save most of them, so they’re only “problems,” until I can get around to rescuing them. In the meantime, they’re teaching me what NOT to do.
Like screen printing with liquid dye instead of thickened dye. Oops! What was I thinking? As you might imagine, the dye ran everywhere and was solid. Like the black top of this piece, which was supposed to have lots of hash marks. When I shifted to teal I remembered to use the thickened dye. Quite a difference, don’t you think?
How will I alter the solid black.? I’m thinking a bleach pen, but I’ll need to do some more research.
However, when I pulled up this screen and saw the ugly fabric I also saw an opportunity. I laid another plain piece of white fabric on top of the saturated fabric (with a masking tape resist still in place,) and I got this.
That’s definitely usable and the part you can’t see is black and white stripes.
I’ll tell you what, I spent a lot of time getting this next fabric to be ugly. That was “before,” but I don’t have a photo. Imagine garish red-orange and purple wide stripes with bright yellow narrow stripes. Yep, that’s what I did. Intentionally! Woah, I could have given myself a seizure with the resulting fabric!
So, I decided to paint a thin dye wash over all of it in dark brown. I did so, but it totally obscured the stripes. So, then I painted on clear water, sweeping off color with my brush, and creating a big pond on my work table. Finally, I squeezed it all out. And I got the fabric above, which I can definitely use. Whew!
Did I mention I’m learning a lot???
Ellen Lindner
So, are you ultimately hoping for serendipitous or intentional products? I tend to like serendipity and the challenge of figuring out how to use it.
Those rescues are definitely usable – especially the last one. I’ve seen some great pieces using the bleach pens.
Thanks, Mary. I think I’ll eventually be able to make it all work.
Good question, Candy. I’m aiming for intentional prints on these fabrics, but I don’t know how I’ll use them. (Well, I’m sure I’ll use many of them together with the addition of some commercial prints.) So I’m purposely creating a wide variety of colors and designs.
I love your last fabric! There is a product called Decolourant that removes color and can be screen printed and used in other ways. See https://www.dharmatrading.com/chemicals/discharge-paste-color-remover.html
That sounds like a good idea, Kristin. Thanks.
After a recent adventure with ice dyeing and loving the results, I decided to take the plunge into dye painting. I’ve invested in chemicals and dye and reading and watching tutorials. Next week I take the full plunge – it will be fun and hopefully I’ll wind up with something I can use.
Wonderful Peg. You’ll have fun, (maybe some frustration too,) and end up with great results!