Snow Dyes Part 3

This is the third in a series of posts I've done on snow dyes this weekend. After about 7-8 hours in the basement studio yesterday, today I wanted to rinse out dyes and iron them. I hadn't really intended to do any new ones, but couldn't resist. It's not that we didn't have snow on the ground - there were already about 6 inches - but new snowfall through the course of the morning meant staying indoors and I had so much fun yesterday that I was bound to continue today. I made considerably more of a mess today, but what of it?

I believe I failed to note in my previous posts that I did not find any of the processes any more messy or difficult than the others, but I did find that I preferred the outcome of the dye solution mixed with the snow (see fabric #4), as it yielded more vibrant, darker colors and meant less time wearing a mask outside mixing the dye powder with the snow, which also yielded nice colors (see fabric #2).

Next, I combined a gradient technique that I use very often with snow dying. It is modified from Adrienne Buffington's "Luscious Berries" gradation.


Fabric Batch #5: (6-step progression dye solution in snow)
I set out six buckets and labeled them A-F then added 6 cups of snow to each. I soaked 6 half-yard pieces of pima cotton in a soda-ash solution. I mixed 1/2 T of Fuchsia in 1 c water and 1T Midnight Blue in 1 c water. I then mixed the colors as prescribed in Buffington's book, with the exception that I did not wait to add the second color. Both colors were added at the same time.

In buckets A-D the two colors were mixed into all 6 cups of snow then the fabric was gradually added, turning it over and mixing it all together so that the dyed snow was covering almost everywhere. (This was very messy and cold.) In buckets E-F I split the snow into two cups and each color was mixed separately. The fabric was put in lasagna layers with each color added to each layer. (Much less messy.)

The snow melted for about 8 hours, then I added warm water so that the fabric was totally submerged in each bucket. They sat overnight and were rinsed and ironed dry about 24 hours later.

All photos copyright Katrina Boles
Stay tuned for part 4...

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