A Good Day to Dye

Yousry Sharif workshop

2008-08-05T09:28:00.002-06:00

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.

ripple closeup

2008-07-30T23:56:00.001-06:00

ripple closeup
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

This is what I wanted to show you -- the intricate little white ripples created by putting the wrap over the scrunched silk. Kewl.

white water

2008-07-30T23:54:00.001-06:00

white water
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

A nice splashy thing. Pale blue and sky blue together in low water immersion.

acid trip

2008-07-30T23:53:00.001-06:00

acid trip
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Even using the tripod and the timed shutter, these pictures STILL got blurry. ARG.

However, this dye experiment turned out waaaay cool. I used thickened and activated green, dark blue, and purple dyes and squirted them right on a randomly scrunched veil on a pole. The colors are ultra insane. I love it!

me to dye: you are FIRED!

2008-07-21T08:48:00.002-06:00

Many of the dyes in my Procion MX collection are things that sounded interesting, so I bought a small quantity just to try them out. Some of these things have been great successes. Others... not so much.

Dharma's "Bronze", for example. When I use it on silk, what I get is sickly green! To me bronze is a brownish color that's heading towards copper but doesn't go that far. But no dice on silk.

I'm also consistently depressed by my results with Teal. On silk it comes out dull, lackluster, without the blue spark I want to see underlying the gray-green tones.

Emerald Green has the opposite problem. There's so much turquoise in this dye that I always get blue spots when I use it. Teal and Emerald, go off in the corner and try to work out your problems, m'kay?

And browns?!! Don't get me started! Golden Brown, give up your title! You are hereby named burnt orange. Rust Brown? C'mon, you are secretly orange-red. Chocolate Brown, you sounded good, but I'm trading you in for Truffle or Brazilnut.

Hey you dyes... you are FIRED!

not user friendly!

2008-07-12T10:34:00.003-06:00

Out of curiosity I ordered a set of Colorhue dyes from Silk Things. Supposedly this is a dye that can be applied to silk which requires no setting chemicals or heat. I had seen a few promising remarks on dye blogs, so I bought the sampler. It says it comes "with instructional booklet".

HA!

The "instructional booklet" does not say how the dyes should be applied. It gives no proportions for diluting them, though the website had implied they were concentrates, no instructions on batching time (if any), nothing. It's the most useless product insert I've seen in a while.

I can only conclude that they want you to drop another $25 on their instructional DVDs! I am just plain disgusted. The website specifically states "There is an excellent instruction guide contained in the sampler which covers clean up, storage, basic application techniques and general handling of the dyes." Riiiight.

One irate email, coming up.

rosewood - experiment 3

2008-07-06T22:26:00.001-06:00

rosewood
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Brown and rust tones were applied to this silk on the pole. The silk was not wetted before applying the dye. It's hard to see here (dang, even with a tripod these didn't turn out that well) but some of the reddish and gold patterns look like wood grain.

sunset - experiment 2

2008-07-06T22:25:00.001-06:00

sunset
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Scarlet, purple, and tangerine produced this bird-of-paradise combination; it includes shades of light blue in places. This silk was arashi wrapped -- but not resisted!

ripple - experiment 1

2008-07-06T22:23:00.001-06:00

ripple
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

I'm very sorry, but this photograph utterly bites. What you can't see is the complex series of white (resisted) ripples all over this veil.

Fun with direct application

2008-06-30T12:47:00.002-06:00

Last night I indulged myself in some fun by combining an arashi shibori pole wrap with direct dye application. What a blast!

I don't currently own a steamer. That makes it difficult to do direct application of acid dyes to my silk. I decided to play around with direct application of activated fiber reactive dyes instead -- rather than presoaking the silk in soda ash solution, which I think might be bad for the silk, I mixed up thickened dye solutions already containing soda ash. These I squirted onto a veil that I crushed and wrapped on a shibori pole; I covered the resulting mess with plastic wrap and let it sit a couple of hours. Result? Well... not subtle... kinda crazy... but I haven't seen it dry yet. Let me get it ironed up and I'll post a picture soon!

Etsy roadblocks

2008-06-26T13:45:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted here for a MONTH. How very lame and annoying of me. Of course, any posts would have been fairly empty of content -- I figure that's MORE annoying.

I have started off my Etsy journey. I signed up for Vashti Silks at Etsy. Then I was going to list a veil... except that I had somebody wanting to view veils in a few days. So I held off in case I should list the one she wanted. But then that didn't happen. So I started to post an item... only to find out that the photos I had of my current items were the wrong size and really blurry! So I had to set it aside again.

The next thing that happened was that all my veils came along with me to be displayed... and they all got wrinkled on the way home. So before I can re-photograph I have to re-iron them all. Gaaaah! It's going to take forever. And, oh yes, I need to be dyeing more silk as well.

I'm also very excited because my new sewing machine is coming. I'd really like to make some clothing items out of my dyed silk at some point. Maybe something like Kwik Sew 3462.

A sewing interlude

2008-05-22T16:19:00.002-06:00

Haven't posted lately because I haven't been dyeing lately! I had fancy dress costumes to make for WisCon 32. Yes, one of my other roles in life is "science fiction geek." I've been attending WisCon since number 8, in fact, though that streak will be broken next year. I often sew costumes for WisCon; it used to be for the costume contest, but the last few years it's been for the Sunday night Fancy Dress party, which my husband and I co-host. But once the convention is over, the sewing stuff will be packed up and I'll be back in the pretty chemistry biz again.

I'm strongly thinking about opening an Etsy shop. Etsy is a place to sell individual handmade items (as opposed to auctioning off pretty much anything, as eBay is). Well, that's what I've got, is single handmade items. But I need to figure out shipping costs and how to adjust my prices to cover the Etsy fees before I leap in.

In the meantime, consider the ceiling of the Mohammed Ali mosque in Cairo. Don't you wish you had this on a scarf?

Quite a compliment

2008-05-01T08:45:00.002-06:00

I got a phone call last night that really made me feel good. My dye mentor, DC, is an incredible artist. Many of her works sell for hundreds of dollars, and rightly so. She has both fabulous technique and vision; she plays in the big leagues, while I hang out at the sandlot. Yet, she's always been very supportive of my hobby and enthusiastic to hear what I'm working on. If I am confused about results that I'm getting, she will usually have a good suggestion for me.

DC called me last night because one of the local galleries that sells her stuff is losing their silk scarf artist. She wanted to suggest that I submit some scarves to be juried with a view to having them represent me.

Oh. My. God.

Well, this is not going to happen, for several reasons:
a. I already have a full time job, which is (correctly) time-consuming.
b. I'd probably have to become a company.
c. This is not my only hobby. I would have to give up some other things I do in order to focus on the dye work.

However! I was just blown away. Just the fact that DC even mentioned my name to these people is such a compliment. She really, really likes my work!

I'll just be over here. Basking.

How Ashar's custom silk costumes looked on stage

2008-04-19T17:17:00.002-06:00

If you would like to see what Ashar's custom silk order turned into, you could look here: youtube

I'm not sure whether it was kosher for the videographer to post the video, so you might want to look quickly -- but they made beautiful long sleeves and panel skirts out of the three color schemes of yardage. It's a very creative and lovely performance. Go Ashar!

Crazy Fuchsia

2008-04-13T12:03:00.001-06:00

Crazy Fuchsia
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Even in a 10% strength solution, Fuchsia won't give you a pastel!

Cranberry Splash - sold 4/12

2008-04-13T12:01:00.004-06:00

Cranberry Splash - sold 4/12
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

I find that Dharma Trading's Chinese Red dye does interesting things. This one's gone, so no better picture is forthcoming. By the way, blog readers, meet S... or rather, the back of S. S is one of my best silk customers. She's going to move out of town after she finishes her advanced degree in chemistry, so I will probably go out of business then. :-D

Blood Orange

2008-04-13T12:01:00.001-06:00

Blood Orange
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

dyed this thinking about the blood orange juice they served to us on our Alitalia flights.

Forest Ribbon

2008-04-13T11:52:00.001-06:00

Forest Ribbon
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

This is the mint veil overdyed with a teal dye -- I just put a single resist at the edge to get this little accent.

Veil table, BUW workshop show

2008-04-13T11:46:00.003-06:00

Veil table, BUW workshop show
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Here I am with my spectrum of 22 veils!

Gold Rush - sold 4/12

2008-04-13T11:46:00.001-06:00

Gold Rush - sold 4/12
Originally uploaded by tigerb.

Here's the Gold Rush, with brown and warm gold tones. My dance teacher snapped it up... she had a brown and gold veil "vanish" after a restaurant show and bought this as a replacement.

A MONSTER veil-selling day

2008-04-13T11:11:00.003-06:00

I took my 22 veils downtown, put my tablecloth on the table, and laid them out in roughly ROYGBIV order. I was thinking to myself, in this economy, I'd really like to sell four veils; six would be great.

TEN VEILS! I sold TEN VEILS! Woo hoo!

And I have a custom order. A rush custom order. That wasn't real great planning on my part, I am so busy, but it's for Jaz. There is no way I'd let Jaz down. And she has a new costume that needs a veil....

The other great thing was that I got to see what Ashar Dance Company did with their custom silk yardage. I did bi-color pieces of silk in three different schemes for them, and they made looooonnnng sleeves and skirt panels out of them for a "House of Flying Daggers" inspired dance. It was truly beautiful, and I was so happy to see my silk turned into something so lovely on stage.

I have a few new pictures... some are from the vending room, since I didn't have time to photograph all the new ones in the "studio."

a pressing update

2008-04-09T09:22:00.002-06:00

Oh, the iron-y. (Sorry.)

Back in February I was pondering how to iron my big veils on my cutting board. Darlene suggested just working on a couple layers of folded sheets. Well, I had to iron seven veils last night, and lo and behold, a folded flannel sheet did a great job. I did wish that it would stay wrinkle free while I worked... I had to smooth it out somewhat between veils... but it was significantly faster to be able to iron more than a quarter of a three-yard veil at a time. And I did spend $0 on it, always a plus!

I also wished it would reflect the heat back just a big more. I still may get just a piece of one of the reflective fabrics to go on the top of my flannel pad.

Hot Overdye Action!

2008-04-04T09:25:00.003-06:00

When I started to look around and make a plan of attack to bring my inventory back up to a reasonable level, I ran into a problem immediately: low on silk. I just didn't have very many veils prepared for dyeing, and I certainly didn't have the time to either order some more or hem some more before the show on the 12th.

So I looked a little harder... and found some "rejects." Thereupon I entered into the Can This Silk Be Saved? show.

There were two veils I dyed a while back that were meant to be a brilliant purple. I was going to leave one solid and use the other in a shibori project. Sadly, they came out a disappointing dusty mauve. I felt depressed just looking at them. Clearly they needed to be overdyed in a different color. My initial thought was to correct their shade with a superduper purple dye bath, but a glance at my inventory showed a whole mess of purple-toned veils in stock! Darn. But suddenly I realized... black veils! Black veils always sell eventually. So I mixed up a big pot of black acid dye and in they went. They look great. Later I realized why I don't dye in black very often... cleaning up afterwards is a pain in the neck.

The other reject was the second Shamrock Shake green veil. This was from the batch that was supposed to be "kelly green" -- they sure weren't. I was willing to be a bit experimental with the overdye in this case, as I really wasn't sure what this mint tone would do to the overlying color. I got out some teal dye, a very grayed out blue-green. I tied a single scalloped stripe along one long edge of the veil and just threw it in a soda ash immersion. I took it out of the washing machine this morning -- wet, it looks like the color settled to a pretty nice dark green shade. I'm very curious to see how it looks dry. But I have little doubt that it will be a more attractive thing than the Shamrock Shake was.

Pictures soon... I promise.

a land of bright accents

2008-03-31T09:27:00.002-06:00

I've been on vacation in Egypt.

Now, there's a short sentence for a long, long story, but all the details don't belong in my dye blog. I do want to record a few thoughts about the colors of Egypt, though.

The colors of Ancient Egypt are well-known to anyone interested in the historical period: garnet red, turquoise and lapis blues, jasper green, and the yellow of sand alongside the yellow of gold. When you stand in the temples of Karnak and Luxor, you have to look hard to find them these days, as the years have scoured away most of the beautiful colors. When you do find a gaily-painted area of ceiling, you have to stretch your imagination -- how did this place look when every wall and column was so colorful? It is easy to see why Westerners in the 1920s looked at this beautiful architecture and carried the lines and images home to become part of the Art Deco movement.

The colors of modern Egypt are quite different. People wear browns and greys and blacks. The big cities are rather grubby and the air is hazy with pollution. But as you stand on the corner, watch for the bright accents: the older lady dressed all in black but for her cherry-blossom-pink head scarf. The man in the faded old gallibeya with the rich burgundy turban. The girl with the elbow-length gray headscarf and skirt... with slits on the sides revealing her brilliant turquoise underskirt. As you drive along a street choked with traffic and piles of concrete rubble from a construction side, suddenly you come upon a vendor's cart piled high with brilliant orange and red carrots and beautiful pale green cabbages the size of basketballs!

There is still beautiful color in Egypt. Just look for it.

the best-laid schemes

2008-03-09T09:01:00.002-06:00

After all those veils, I took on a dyeing commission for a local dance troupe, Ashar Dance Company. They wanted some fairly specific yardage for a fusion piece they plan to present in April. I don't want to say too much about it as I don't want to give away their surprise, but let me just say this: producing this yardage was one of the hardest projects I've ever attempted.

I had initially estimated that this project would take me about ten hours. It took twenty-two hours. Needless to say, I didn't charge them nearly enough! They got a great deal. But I still feel kind of bad, because some of the silk did not turn out they way they wanted.

A section of the silk I was dyeing for them was to be light golden brown, like a sandy beach, but I was specifically warned to stay away from anything too yellow. No problem, I thought, and ordered Golden Brown from Dharma Trading.

No problem? Two problems:

1. The usual problem of getting a light or pastel shade in any of the Procion MX dyes. Even starting with a rule of thumb of a very low concentration of dye, I couldn't get a good light shade of this color. The lighter I went the harder it was to get an even tone, and this even with fairly religious stirring.

2. Golden Brown tends to the orange side on silk. Sample after sample came out closer to Florida oranges than to Florida beaches. I tried to correct it by adding different blues to the mix, but adding blue also made the brown darker!

My virtual dye friends over at Paula Burch's dye forum were very helpful and supportive, but in the end I actually had to admit defeat. I was out of time and the silk had to be delivered. Rather than sand I delivered caramel. I'm still a bit depressed over the whole thing. But now I know: browns are just hard.