Monday, October 28, 2013

Back to Dyeing

My broken wrist is out of the cast and into a splint and I can actually do some pole wrapping again. At least a little. I still can only twist in one direction as I push but it was great to get back to the pole and string again.

This time I decided to try using Procion dyes instead of plant dyes or silk dyes. I just soaked a charmeuse silk scarf in vinegar while I mixed a tablespoon of turquoise dye in a couple gallons of water (enough to immerse the scarf on the pole).  I left the pole immersed in the dye bath for maybe 15 minutes, washed it on the pole with water, unwrapped it and washed it again. 

It looked good with turquoise and white stripes but I thought it needed a little something else. So I mixed up some Deep Orange, rewrapped the scarf in a different direction and gave it an orange bath.

Here's the result
 
The best part is that the Procion dye really penetrates all the layers much better than Indigo or any of the silk dyes I tried in the past. So even though I folded this rather thick and heavy charmeuse scarf, the pattern and color came through in the same intensity in all the layers. The colors are actually turquoise and a brownish-orange.
 
 
 
 
This one I dyed a solid yellow green, folded twice, wrapped, soaked in vinegar and immersed in the leftover turquoise. It's a chiffon and the patterns is not as well-defined. Maybe I didn't have the string pulled as tight or maybe the chiffon takes the dye differently than the charmeuse.  it still looks good, just different. And its very bright, almost the color of those bright green geckos.
 


 
A close-up

1 comment:

sonja said...

glad you are on the mend and able to pole wrap and color those scarves the color of those big green geckos !Wowser!
love the Turquois one!