Experimentation

 Last week, at my fibreart support group meeting, The Fibreart Divas, some of the ladies were experimenting with a new dyeing process, aimed at creating background fabric for future textile art. Watching them, I was reminded of a dyeing workshop by Laura Kemsell that I had taken on the internet.  She had done a couple of things differently, but several things exactly like my friends were doing.  They used a large flat metal tray for a base, started with a layer of heavy plastic, then a layer of fabric pre-soaked in Sodium Carbonate.  This was then covered with various colours of dye, another piece of plastic on top and the whole thing squeegeed vigorously.  Within the plastic, their finished pieces showed very little value difference and appeared to be reduced to one colour.  Another layer of fabric on top and the whole process repeated several times. All the layers were then tightly rolled up and left to batch overnight.

The  Kemshell workshop used the same process omitting the metal tray and squeegee, thickening the dye somewhat, and spreading the dye across the fabric with a credit card, before adding the next layer of plastic.  She also added a few special marks before leaving a piece. Once finished the pieces were quite vibrantly coloured.

My process left out the metal tray because I didn't have one.  I thickened my dye a little, and then applied it more gently and more specifically.  Finally I squeegeed it far less vigorously than my friends had done.

Yesterday and today I finished dyeing several pieces.  I have to admit that, at this point, I have no future vision for any one them, although one might make a very usable "sunset".