Snow Dyes Part 1

Thursday when I trudged through the 6-8 inches of snow on my way to work I did not bother to think about what I might do with all this white stuff, aside from knowing I probably wouldn't be driving much until it was cleared.

But then, when I awoke on my Saturday morning, curious as to how I would fill my day (my art group get-together got postponed), it dawned on me that I might use the snow to do some much-postponed dyeing. It's been ages since I've been in my studio to do anything other than pilfer items like scissors or paper. All of a sudden, breakfast, showering, and other things of that nature flew from my mind as it raced through ideas of how I might use the snow. I decided the logical first step was to look up techniques that others have tried online. Most of the dyers I came across were placing their pre-soaked fabric on a raised surface, then piling on the snow, then the dye mixture. I also came across someone who tried mixing the powder dye with the snow, but found that to be rather messy.

I had some other ideas too... but I decided to start with the first two suggestions. Here's my process and my end results:

Fabric #1: (dye over snow)
First, I soaked a fat quarter of pima cotton in a soda-ash solution (no salt) for a few minutes as I stretched cheesecloth over a bucket. Then I laid out my cotton fabric, scrunching the edges to make it fit within the bucket's edges. Next I added about an inch of snow. Then I took 2Tbsp of cerulean (mixed five months ago to a solution of 1/2 T in 1/4 c water) and squirted it randomly atop the snow. I decided that left too much white space so I also did the same with cobalt (also mixed five months ago at the same ratio). I let this melt on it's own for four hours in my basement - at about 60 degrees - when I got impatient and took my embossing heat gun to it and melted the rest of the snow.

I rinsed with synthrapol and ironed it dry:

 

Fabric #2: (dye powder mixed into snow)

First I soaked a fat quarter of pima cotton in a soda ash solution for about one hour (I've found that the amount of soaking time really doesn't matter at all, that just happens to be how long it took for me to get test #1 and #2 started.) While the fabric was soaking, I mixed 1tsp Lemon Yellow into 2 cups of snow, 1tsp rust brown in 2 cups of snow, and 1 tsp dark brown into 2 cups of snow. On another bucket with cheesecloth stretched over the top, I laid out fabric #2, scrunching the edges again. Over the top of the fabric, sprinkled the dyed snow in a random pattern. It was left to melt in the basement for about four hours and then was rinsed with synthrapol and ironed dry.

A note about the colors in this second fabric: You will notice that there is green and a purple-ish color in this final fabric. That has to do with the dye mixes. In the Procion MX dyes (used here), rust brown and dark brown are not primary colors, they are a pre-mixture intended to give this color. I knew that this was likely to happen, as some dye particles will bleed out more than others. However, if you notice on the first sample this did not happen. That is because both cobalt and cerulean are primary colors, so they should be pure colors and the only mixing that should occur is between those two. Mixing non-primary colors can yield unintended, and sometimes very interesting results. However, if you are a dyer, and you want a very specific color, I would recommend using only the pure dyes and mixing them to get the color you need.

All photos copyright Katrina Boles

Stay tuned for part 2...

Pin It