11 February 2015

More snow



Can we all say "Snow Dyes"?

I have been chronically disappointed about "most" of the snow dyes I've done this and two years ago. You know how you make an absolutely amazing snow dye then spend years trying to reproduce it?

First off and this is just me, I can't stand "hot" colors especially red. Most of my snow dyes are saturated reds or fuchsias.  I keep telling myself to stop it but my hand goes and grabs the fuchsia bottle.



My last batch of snow dyes were all brown from me trying to use every color but red. The ironic thing was that the brown split out, mixed with some golden yellow and ended making a bright red piece. Am I cursed?

OK, this time I will be very careful about my colors and not go nuts adding too many.

First thing is I soaked my fat half yards (22X36) in a container of soda ash solution (one gallon water to one generous cup soda ash powder). While the fabric was soaking, I got out my hardware wire cloth (1/2") and collected the snow - nice and fluffy from my deck. 



I got out my dyes and arranged them near the sink. I also took the fabric out of the container with soda ash solution and hand wrung them, arranging the fabric in a crumpled heap in the middle of the wire.


Then I carefully built an igloo shaped cover of snow over each of the pieces of fabric making sure no fabric stuck out and the snow was relatively uniform in thickness.


Now it was time to squirt on the dye concentrate (1T dye to 1 cup water) in my bottles.


Above was Boysenberry (purple)and "cotton" black. I like this color because it splits to purple. It's ProChems MX 602a. Below was chartreuse and turquoise. These were the two color combos I was really looking forward to creating!


After about 3-4 hours just sittting there rotting, most of the snow is gone and I can see fabric peeking out. This is the time I put the fabric with the remaining snow cap in the microwave. I don't remember why I do this or where I learned it but I have no memory of doing snow dyes without this final microwave step.


These are ready to "cook"





Out of the microwave and into an ICE water bath. Scrub, scrub, scrub under ice water but use insulated rubber gloves.


Oh my, just what I wanted!!










7 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Thanks for showing the process.

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  2. Well, now I'm intrigued! I have only used dye powders sprinkled on top of the snow... never pre-mixed dyes! And I have never heard of nuking toward the end. But I love your results, so may have to try snow dyeing again if we get any more snow this year!

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  3. Luscious results. Thanks for showing the liquid dyes and what concentration you used.

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  4. You are making me wish for snow this weekend!
    Wonderful colors.
    Jo

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  5. Luscious colors Beth! Never nuked mine but I'll give it a try. I usually let mine sit in a cold garage overnight or all day so it doesn't melt so quickly. Perhaps nuking makes up for the short dyeing stint. I'm also planning on changing up my colors this time too.

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  6. Well, now you know you're not cursed! Beautiful results. :-)

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