Adventures in Ice Cube Dyeing

Back on this blogpost I mentioned that I tried ice cube dyeing. It's a super easy why to dye fabric. I equate it to cooking with a crock pot. Put everything in at once and let it cook.

Being that it was my first try at this technique, I wanted to dye a piece of clothing along with fabric to see how each would take to this process. Sometime ago, I brought a T-shirt from Dharma that would be fun to dye.  I decided to use the leftover Dharma's Procion dye in Periwinkle, Blue Violet and Sapphire Blue from my Delphinium project.

First, I soaked the shirt and a piece of cotton fabric in soak ash. After both pieces had dried, I started by layering the fabric in the bucket. Alternating fabric, ice cubes then sprinkling the dye. Then the t-shirt was place on top of the fabric. Again, layering t-shirt, ice cubes then dye.

After the ice cubes had melted, about 24 hours, I rinsed out the t-shirt and fabric then left them to dry. I was pleasantly surprised to see the results once both pieces had dried. The t-shirt had dyed the way I thought the technique should look with good variation of light and dark areas.

front of shirt

back of shirt



 





The fabric dyed a bit darker that the t-shirt due to the difference in the type fabric. I like the results of both items. This is definately a technique that I will try again.

Energy Pathways

It's time for another artwork trade for Serendipity Art Group. The theme for this time around is "Energy Pathways". I decided to try to convey the theme with an abstract design. My piece is called "Energized".

 

 

I used Pebeo Setacolor Fabric paint in Lemon Yellow (Opaque), Vermillion and Cobalt Blue (both Transparent). First, I painted a whole cloth ombre using all 3 colors. Once it dried then I dried brush the colors on top for more texture. I cut the fabric into vertical strips. Laying them back down slightly alternating. I sewed the pieces together, added batting and back fabric.   

Artistic Expressions - Delphinium Field

Last Saturday was the meeting for Artistic Expressions group. We are all working on artwork for an exhibit called Delphinium Field. Each piece will be the same size of 18' x 28" with a stripe border incorporating all the colors in our piece. Our amazing leader, Deborah Stanley, confirmed that this exhibit will tour in 7 Mancuso shows across the US from May 2013 through February 2014. Very exciting!

Here is a photo of the members taken at our last meeting. I'm behind the camera taking the photo.


Front row - Teresa Shippy, Linda Friedman, Deborah Stanley
Back row -  Laura Bisagna, Eileen Wintemute, Mary Beth Kile, Cynthia Catlin

I'm going to challenge myself not to incorporate my favorite color, green, in my piece. The flower is going to be mainly blue and purple. I thought it would be interesting to have the layout of one single delphinium in close up and off center - 3/4 view.

Delphinium layout

The fun part of any piece for me is dyeing the fabric. I used Dharma Procion dye in Periwinkle, Blue Violet and Sapphire Blue. Each dye bath consisted of 3 gallons of water, 1 cup salt, 1/3 cup of soda ash and 1/2 tablespoon of dye. The fabric was presoaked in soda ash.

Linda Friedman brought her beautiful completed artwork, "Flora Lure" to show. You can check out this artwork on this blogpost.

Other members brought their work in progress artwork for this exhibit. I was really inspired by Laura Bisagna's fabric, which was dyed using the ice cube technique. It's a technique that I wanted to try since reading Carol Ludington's article in the June/July 2012 Quilting Arts magazine. I gave this technique a try and rinsed out the fabric this morning. I will blog about my experience once the fabric has dried. To be continued...