Vanishing veils

So... the dancer who bought Cherry Sangria showed it to a classmate, who also demanded silk. She came looking for a blue veil but walked out with a Sunspot in yellow and peach. I hurriedly made more veils and took everything to a trunk show for Mahela's intermediate class. I sold my replacement Sunspot and also an earth-toned veil. That was Sunday night.

Then at noon on Monday I got an urgent email from Phaedra: "Veil emergency! Bring your veils to the studio tonight!" Yes, she had new costumes with no veils to go with them. I had nothing to go with her red & silver costume, unfortunately, but the Pink Comet (a fuchsia ombre veil with a white "tail") looked great with her burgundy and pink sequined outfit. She also fell for a purple and blue veil that we dubbed the "fruit smoothie" for its cranberry and blueberry tones.

Luckily I do have pictures of all of these on my camera... but who would have thought I would suddenly sell six veils in four weeks? I'm going to have to really hustle to get my commission done for the Ashar Dance Company, so I have a little more time to make more veils before I go on vacation! Heavens!

Weekend of the seven veils

New personal record -- seven veils dyed over the weekend. All but one are ironed and photographed. Whew! Pictures here soon.

As I ironed (and ironed, and ironed) I thought more about what Darlene mentioned over at Shibori Borealis -- that she got a bigger ironing board. I looked into this a little bit, but the idea of storing yet another big rectangular thing (alongside my cutting mats, lap desk, cutting table, current ironing board, and Koala cabinets) doesn't really appeal. Plus it's about $100. And the more I thought about it the more I wished I could just iron on my cutting table. It's a big white banquet table, about 24" by 72". (We call it the White Table of Gondor. Don't ask.) Ironing 108" by 45" veils would go really fast on such a big surface.

So I emailed the sewing consultants at Nancy's Notions. They've got a fabric called Insul-Bright, which reflects heat back. If I wanted to make an "ironing cover" for my cutting table, I'd need to make a big sandwich like this:

Cotton fabric or muslin - bottom
Cotton batting
Insul-bright - shiny side up
Cotton batting
Cotton fabric or muslin on top.

Cost, too... $20 for the batting... $10 for the Insul-bright... $5 for the muslin... then maybe another $5 for elastic... definitely cheaper than The Big Board, and something I could roll up and put away. Hmm. But how to find the time to make it??

That's always the problem.

art vs. necessity!

So I am madly dyeing veils in order to have enough stock for the Bellydancing UW show in April. (Hmm, I better send in my table registration right away too.) If I weren't going to be away on vacation for a couple weeks shortly before the show, it would be no big deal, but as it is, I must have my stock ready to go soon. I had planned to do some low water immersion (LWI) method, some overdyes, some arashi shibori method.

But suddenly... I have a large silk commission that needs to be done in the same time frame -- for some local dancers whose creative vision I really respect; I don't want to disappoint them. Also, dancers have started popping out of the woodwork seeking new veils. So not only have I got less time to dye veils... my stock is subject to attrition!

Therefore I suspect a lot of my new veils will have to be low water immersion. I can create two very nice LWI veils in an evening, if they are in the same color family. Overdyes require multiple dye passes, so they take two or three evenings. Arashi shibori takes as long as an overdye, but also requires me to do all the folding and wrapping -- some evenings all I can get done is the fold and wrap and the actual immersion has to wait until the next day!

So it's the KISS method for me for a while. And trying out new methods is also out for now... did I mention my bathtub is now purple? Ooops.

...aaaaaand it's gone

Cherry Sangria went right out the door this evening. An enthusiastic dancer decided she just could not stand that poly chiffon veil a day longer; she needed SILK! I was happy to oblige.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with the sad neglected home page of my website. I've decided against any kind of an estore... just can't do it on top of my day job, and my stock amount is so unpredictable. Maybe some kind of links to Flickr for items still available, and a gallery of silk gone by? Or something?

Well, in the meantime, maybe you better go check out the new blog at Shibori Borealis and marvel at what Darlene is making.

Cherry Sangria

Cherry Sangria
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

A bit blurry, unfortunately. And I definitely need to learn more about the exposure adjustments on my camera. Seems like things automatically come out overexposed!

I planned to use multiple dyes on this veil, but once I had the Black Cherry mixed up, I just poured it over the silk and let it be. The dye breaks out into odd colors one doesn't expect when you do LWI; I find this particular color mixture is quite unpredictable.