Snow Dyes Part 2

As I mentioned in my previous post, I played in the snow, only in the sense that I used the snow to dye fabrics. In the first post, I showed my results from two techniques I found online. And now I will share two of my other trial techniques.


Fabric #3: (burried in snow)
One-half yard of pima cotton pre-soaked in soda ash solution. The fabric was put into a bucket with about 1-2 inches of snow, more snow was added on top. Then I dribbled an avocado dye solution (1/2 T dye in 1/2 c water) over the top of the snow. It was allowed to melt for 4.5 hours, until I dumped the rest of the snow and rinsed the fabric in synthrapol and ironed it dry. (Because of the lightness of the fabric in the result, I think perhaps allowing the snow to fully melt would make it darker, though perhaps either the total snow diluted the dye or the cold of the snow meant the dye was not heat-activated.)

Fabric 4: (lasagna snow dye)
One-half yard of pima cotton pre-soaked in soda ash solution. In a bucket with about 1 inch of snow at the bottom, I laid about 1/3 of the fabric flat on top. In a cup, I mixed two cups of snow with an amethyst solution of 1 tsp dye in 1/4 c water. I did the same with brilliant blue dye. Next, I added a bit of the snow-dye mixtures, and two Shakes cups worth of snow (about 4 measuring cups). I folded the fabric over and then added all of the amethyst snow-dye solution mixture and two more Shakes cups of snow. Lastly, I folded the last third of the fabric atop and added the brilliant blue snow-dye solution mixture and whatever was left of the amethyst and two more Shakes cups of snow. This was allowed to melt for 10 hours before rinsing and ironing dry.

All photos copyright Katrina Boles
Stay tuned for part 3...

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