Colored salt

I had a picture in a post long ago how the salt used to make patterns in the dye holds on to the color, giving me colored salt.  Rather than throwing it away every time I reuse it, keeping the colors in separate bowls.  I wanted to see if I could have the color on the salt go back on to a scarf.

First is a pic of the dry salt in a bowl and some of it sprinkled on a scarf

After sprinkling the rest of the salt on the scarf I misted it thoroughly to rinse the dye onto the scarf.  Here you can see the color did migrate onto the scarf.  The salt didn't have much color left on it.

And here are two finished scarves after being steamed and ironed.  Very pretty, I think.  The one on the left I used both blue and purple salt so the colors are mixed.

But now I can't do it again until I do more 'regular' salted ones since I don't have precolored salt.  Hmmm, I wonder how colorful cake sugar sprinkles would work....  But those are such small bits.

Find your child from a distance

A couple of really bright children's sets.  In case your toddler tries to escape, you should put them in something really bright to make it easier to spot them.  Plus, these are really cute with the safari animals on them.

Flower baby

For your little flower baby.  I'm glad purple is so popular now, I've always like it. 

My husband and I work with a lot of people in their 20's and 30s so there are a number of baby gifts needed.  I like to give them one of my hand dyed shirts.  Much nicer than a plain white one.  And since the design is done as batik it won't wear off the front from a lot of washings.  And the fiber reactive dye is quite resistant to drooling and washing. 

Folds

I tried out a different way to fold this scarf before wrapping it around the pole Arashi style.  I hope the pictures make it clear, it's a bit awkward to describe.

I folded it in half the long way, than overlapping folds facing the same way to shorten it up.  The first picture is when it was folded and ironed.  The second one is when I was trying to get it to stay on the pole long enough to wrap it with string.  That was the biggest challenge.  And, of course, the finished product in the third picture partially folded like it was when I dyed it.

Purple

I like purple, can you tell?

These three are Itijime Shibori, where they're folded and clamped between shapes.  Kind of like folding paper for cutting out snowflakes in art class in school.  All three were in the same batch of dye.

 
The one on the left is silk crepe de chine.  The middle is a soft, slightly looser weave of rayon.  The one on the right is a hand woven (not by me) rayon with subtle stripe in the weave.

And again, you can see how the color shifts on silk compared to rayon.

Lavender

Another example of the different color cotton and silk give even when they're in the same container.  This is lavender dye.  The tshirt is a soft 100% cotton and the scarf is 100% silk Crepe de Chine.  The silk seems a lot more blue.  Other times when I put silk in blue dye it seems more purple.

Trains

More Trains.  Yes, I like trains.  My Grandfather worked for Burlington Northern, previously Great Northern, for about 40 years and my Dad is an enthusiast.  So I have to do trains. 

Trains are also good for both girls and boys clothes.  I don't find so many cute boys clothes I like and I'm not so big on ruffles and princesses for girls.

Of course it is also cute when the little one can match the grown up.  The husband of a friend of mine got a Pirate vs Ninja shirt from me and their nephew wanted one just like it.  I don't think it mattered what the shirt looked like, the boy just wanted a shirt just like his uncle's.  Since the stencil is one I did it was easy enough to cut a smaller version. 

And where else would you put the caboose but on the backside of a shirt?

Crackles

Yes, some more silk hankies.  I told you I've done a lot of hankies.  They're a lot smaller, cheaper and easier to deal with than scarves.  I could cut a scarf into pieces, but it is nice to not have to deal with the edges raveling.

The one on the left was completely covered with wax then scrunched to get the wax to crackle.  Soy wax doesn't crack as much as paraffin, but it will crack.  I didn't start out to see what it would look like.  But the test  design I was trying to do was rather blobby and unattractive.  So I figured it was a good opportunity to see how it would turn out if I completely coated it on both sides.

The one on the right is to show what color the dye was.  Even though it was in a blue dye bath, the coated one turned out with a lot of purple.  A more extreme example of the color shift of fiber reactive dye on silk.  It is beautiful, but would be an awful lot of wax on one scarf.  I'll try doing some smaller circles on a scarf like this and see how it turns out.  Since the soy wax is degraded by the soda ash used in a dye bath the wax tends to wear off more on a larger item that needs to be stirred more.  But it should still look really interesting.

Canvas

Not too exciting, just a piece of canvas.  But it is pretty.  And interesting how the patten came out different on each side.  The orientation is the same in both photos. 

Just used the normal tray, swished it a few times and turned it over once or twice.  Since the canvas is so thick the dye doesn't soak through, it just sits on the surface.  It unravelled on the edges a bit while in the washer and the threads are still white on the side that was 'inside' of the weave.


It is going to become a tote bag for my display brackets.  Hmmm, I think the only other tote bag that doesn't have a logo of some sort on it is another one I made out of a lighter weight canvas I was testing.

Variety

Not all of the scarves I've done lately have been red, I've also done some blue & purple. I'm really happy how the pattern on this one turned out. Tilting it up on one side makes the dye move differently. It kind of looks like little snowballs rolling down a hill.

Salt

I really like how this scarf turned out. It took me a couple tries to get what I wanted. It's a silk & wool blend and feels nice and airy also.

Salt draws water to it. If you have the scarf really wet with dye and put some large crystals of salt on top of it, the dye will get pulled towards the dye along with the water. That is why there are darker spots.

Well, and I really like the colors, but I'd be pleased with how it turned out even if it wasn't sapphire and amethyst.

Purple

I just love purple, and I love the look of Mokume Shibori. I'm really happy with how this turned out.

It isn't the picture that is faded on the edges. It is the shirt itself. I only stitched a band across the shirt instead of stitching the whole thing. The color of the shirt fades like that. The shadings that happen using this technique are so interesting.

Metals

Don't worry, I don't plan to wear these all together. But they have a common color.

All three silk scarves were braided together and dyed bronze. Then re-braided separately and dyed orange, green and maroon/purple. I really like the way the colors separate and combine. By having them braided the dye can't get to all parts of the scarf. But like the test strip samples, the dye doesn't absorb all at the same rate as it soaks into the fabric.