In the first one, the scarf has been stretched and painted with dye. The salt was just sprinkled on it.
The next one is after it dried. The salt pulled the dye into the patterns. It looks a bit lighter than it will after it's been steamed.
The last one is after steam setting, washing and ironing. Although it is Crepe de Chine and wouldn't need to be ironed, you know how it is when you'll be showing it to a lot of other people.
Did I mention that I really like the pattern the salt makes in the dye? The one on the stretchers right now I put a lot more salt on & smaller granules. We'll see how that ones turns out.
I also want to try some kosher salt. So far, I've been using rock salt. Kosher would be much smaller flakes. I'm hoping for a more 'foamy' appearance.
Kim, this is stunning! I haven't had much luck with this technique with dye, I've only ever used Dynaflow (which works great). I see from your set up that stretching and having the cloth above the work surface might be my problem. Have you ever tried this with cottons?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment.
ReplyDeleteI've only tried it with Jacquard Red Label dye for silk. And I've noticed a difference with the different colors. Scarlet red doesn’t seem to move as much as magenta does. And cyan blue moves much better.
I haven’t tried cotton with fiber reactive, but plan to. Have you, and do you have any hints? I figure I’ll soak in soda ash and stretch it wet. Then add urea to the dye to keep it moist longer and tent some plastic over it. Since I have the frame set up right now so I’ve been busy dyeing scarves.
I recently got a book from Susan Stein, Fabric Art Workshop and she has info on using Dyna-Flow with bubble wrap or pleated heavyweight foil.