Chasing Zebras in the melting pot

After the Yousry Sharif show earlier this month, I had two inquiries about custom work. ZF, a lovely local dancer, wanted a veil, as she was about to take her first veil workshop. She wanted something reminiscent of my Jade Shibori veil, but in black and white.

To do black and white shibori I knew I would have to use a black acid dye bath in a pot on the stove. I carefully folded, wrapped, and tied a white veil and scrunched it down hard towards the end of one of my 6" PVC poles and tried it in the pot for fit. Looked okay... but I was skeptical. I filled the pot with plain water to the level I usually set my dye bath. Uh oh! All the silk would not be submerged. I took out the rack I was using to keep the pole off the bottom of the pot -- now it would fit. But the direct heat was going to be bad for the pole. I fudged. I put a bunch of metal clips on the bottom of the pole so the plastic wouldn't be right on the bottom.

For future reference: that doesn't work. By the time the pole came out, the PVC plastic was soft and had become discolored. The metal clips had made permanent impressions in the pole. What was worse, the veil was slightly discolored near that area.

ZF thought the discolorations were slight and actually rather liked the shadowy effect they had, so she was happy with the veil. I liked the way it looked like a natural pattern, like a zebra or a plant, rather than a geometric one. (I have no picture of it -- I hope one day to have a photo of ZF posing with it, actually.)

But note to self: find a shallower rack that fits in the canning pot!

Yousry Sharif workshop

Well, I set up shop at the local Yousry Sharif workshop over the weekend. I did get to dance Saturday morning, but developed a migraine and had to sit out the afternoon. (Just as well -- my plantar fasciitis didn't think too much of the experience.)

I took all my veils, new and old, and sold four. The workshop was poorly attended, I think because the sponsor had trouble coming up with a venue and couldn't advertise as heavily as she might have liked to. Four was my minimum goal to sell, so I can't complain much.

Someone finally fell in love with the Purple Tiger -- I knew there was just the right person out there for it! I also sold the Solar Flare, Blueberry Ripple, and Blood Orange.

Those fire veils always, always sell. I should start making two at a time, minimum, so I always have them in stock. But it's interesting how just a slight change in the dyes chosen have a huge effect on the overall look of the dye. If I use Fire Red, its fuchsia component comes out strongly. I can also use Coral for the red/orange shade, but it's much less strong a color. Likewise, I can use Lemon Yellow or Golden Yellow for quite different results; lemon is brighter, golden is warmer. Sunspot used Scarlet, which gives very little pink tone, and Lemon -- and the oranges were very strong. Sometimes I do a fire pattern and throw some Tangerine in, as well. I'd like to play with Sunrise red in a fire veil sometime, and perhaps Marigold....

So many colors, so little time.