veil workshop musings

I've been asked to do a short (1.5 hr) veil dying workshop.

On the one hand, yay!
On the other hand: uhhhh...

I have to figure out how much to charge per person for this. I would be supplying all the stuff, from silk to vinegar to dye to a microwave, plus all the plastic doodads one needs to mix, zap, and protect oneself from the dye.

Should I go through and add up all my costs for these items, then add some mysterious percentage for myself? Or..?

The timing is a little tricky as well... in 90 minutes, how many students
can
--set up a draped space to work
--listen to 10 minutes of lecture about fiber reactive dye
--soak their silk in vinegar
--mix their dye
--dye the silk for (say) 15 minutes
--line up to zap their items in the microwave
--rinse and rinse and rinse their items in the nearest sink? (And will the
location go ballistic over that?)

dye happy

Since things went so well yesterday I actually got a little dye work in. I dyed one of the cotton rib knit shoulder shrugs from Dharma with a shade called "black cherry" -- I'm pretty happy with the color, but not so happy that the shirt did shrink a good bit. Dang! I'm not sure it's still wearable. Well, if it's no good, I'll dye up the others as well and try to sell them to classmates.

I also started my series of veils that I think of as my "elementals" -- I want to make veils that evoke the feeling of earth, air, fire, and water. Last night I did "fire" with red, orange, and yellow dyes -- it's pretty nice! I'll try to have a picture on flickr soon. That darn red dye, though -- you rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse and there is still dye coming off. Arg.

For "water" I want to try to create something with pretty blues and either a "foam" feeling or "bubbles". Air will have pale lavenders and pale blues. Earth... I am still conflicted. Browns? Greens? Hmm.