Future projects: Ombré dyeing

While doing some online shopping for a dress to wear to my best friend's wedding, she came across this beautiful dress at Nordstrom that has an awesome gradation from eggplant-purple to light grey-purple.

The dye technique for this is called ombre. It is a process of dipping the fabric into the dye at intervals and interval depths. I remember in my undergrad there was a student who did a piece using silks she had dyed by hanging them so that only the bottom of the fabric was in the dye and she allowed the dye to wick up the fabric. These were some of the most beautifully dyed silks I've seen.

So, in an effort to learn a way to create a controlled gradation in one piece of fabric, I found this somewhat informative video from Otis College of Art & Design:


A future project perhaps?

Dyes, Dyes, and more Snow Dyes!

Though I did not continue to begin snow dyes on the last snow day, I could not stay out of the studio for long. With the next batch, I used only 2 cups of snow and half the dye solution from the "Black Magic" chart in Adrienne Buffington's book. The gradation from a light cerulean blue to a darkened blue with the addition of black. Each quart-sized bag contained one fat quarter of pima cotton soaked in soda-ash. I varied how I added the dyed snow to the bags, but it didn't make a ton of difference in the final fabrics anyway, as you can see:

Though I also really liked the first process for creating dyed fabric using snow, I was less thrilled by the waste of dye and the lightness of the final fabric, so in this next pair, I used what was left from the black magic gradation (about 5 tsp of cerulean blue solution), diluted it two times and poured that over the snow. In my setup, however, I decided to put a fat quarter of soda-ash soaked pima cotton in the bottom of the bucket before putting the grate over the bucket and another piece of soda-ash soaked pima, which had the snow and dye over top. Here are images from the process and the final outcome:

All images copyright Katrina Boles

Snow Dyes Part 7

Yesterday I started another batch of dyes, as I continue to build my array of hand-dyed cottons for future projects, this time a gradation from golden yellow to sky blue. I hate to say it, but I did not particularly like the outcome of these dyes. The colors are not as vibrant as they could be. I suspect the problem is in the amount of soda-ash I failed to add to my solution. I've been using the same bucket of soda-ash water for all these dyes, adding a bit of soda-ash to the bucket when I add water, but in an effort to not be wasteful, continue to reuse what was left from each previous soaking. However, in doing that, I do not know how much soda-ash to add each time. This last time I added very little - about a teaspoon - and I suspect the mordant was too diluted for it to help create the vibrant colors I was hoping for. (Of course it could be the actual colors I was displeased with. While potentially useful, the olive/army green colors were not what I was hoping for.) I also added some salt this time, which, as it turns out, was a bad a idea. Salt is typically used as a dispersant, so it reduces the visual texture from crinkles, folds and other areas where the dye does not reach so readily. As I understand, adding salt to a dyebath helps to accomplish a more even color. I wanted more texture, not less.

Image copyright Katrina Boles

Snow Dyes Part 6

Another winter day where I'm stuck inside...at least today it was bright and sunny, though I didn't see too much of the sun since I spent so much time in the basement. I put more of our 20 inches of snowfall to use today.

Yesterday I started another color progression from Golden Yellow to Fire Red. This time, the fabric dried after being soaked in soda ash, then the snow applied while it lay flat, followed  by scrunching and rolling, otherwise the process was the same as my previous snow-dye progression. Here are the results:

I also began three other pieces, the first with silk and the other two are pima cotton (these were done with dye solution mixed with snow):

The first is mostly turquoise with a bit of sky blue. The second is burgundy and the third eggplant. After a few hours of sitting, I spritzed the cotton fabrics with a bit of leftover watered-down dye because there was still a lot of unwanted white space peaking through. This accounts for the pale spaces on the fabrics. Silk tends to wick the dye, so it did not need any spritzing.

I am working toward having a large range of colors at my disposal for coming projects. I may not know yet what those projects are, but it truly is the dye results that takes my breath away. More snow dyes to come as we have a third snow day tomorrow!!

All images copyright Katrina Boles.

Snow Dyes Part 5

I don't know how much snow we've gotten today, but it's probably at least a foot. With the blizzard and all the closings, it seemed ample opportunity to do some more snow dyes! But first, I'll share some photos of the final curtain pieces that were dyed twice (to see the process, go to part 4). They definitely are not as exciting or successful as all the others done with pima cotton - these were done with unbleached muslin.

On my first weekend of snow dyes, I did a smaller piece of Pima cotton, which I did not write about. However, the outcome of the images is worth seeing. The process of the black dye over snow looked rather interesting once the snow melted, as seen here:

Today I also tried a silk acid dye with the snow, where I mixed some golden yellow dye and a tiny bit of leftover fire red in snow, then put that over a piece of silk that soaked in vinegar. I scrunched it and put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Here is a photo of these two pieces of fabric, the silk and the "black" pima:

Also, I overdyed fabric #3 from part 2. The first coloring just didn't come out as vibrant as I'd hoped. But I had much better luck with the second round, which I did by mixing 1 Tbsp avocado with 2-3 cups of snow and put that directly on top of the soda-ash soaked fabric. I let it melt and dry over a screen so that it would not sit in the dye before I rinsed and ironed it.

This afternoon/evening I began some more dyes...stay tuned for notes on those in another post.

All images copyright Katrina Boles.