Bronze

I'm really happy with how this turned out.  The colors work really well together.  The chocolate brown really looks like metallic bronze with the luster of the silk Crepe de Chine. 

It is Jacquard red label black and chocolate brown dye.  Folded and clamped in the Itajime Shibori style.  I only wet it a little bit before applying the dye so it wicked in to the middle more than some. That is what allows the slight white section between the brown and black.

Another one I want to keep for myself.  All I need now is more places to wear them.

Lines

These pictures are all of the same silk scarf, but at different steps. 

First, I stretched it on the frame and painted it with red dye.  Then I painted some free form lines with black.  You can see in the first picture how defined the lines are. 

The second picture shows how diffuse the lines became with the salt pulling the dye.

And the scarf after steam setting the dye and washing it.  I'm really happy how this turned out.  Red dye doesn't move much with the salt, but the black does.

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.

Amber waves

A new color from Dharma Trading, Amber Waves.  Similar to Palamino gold but with just a little more orange tint to it, a little warmer.  I know I could mix my own colors, but I'm not as interested in that as the designs on the fabric.

This is a silk scarf that was folded in thirds the long way then wrapped Arashi style on the pole.

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.

Green

Another Arashi Shibori tied scarf.  This one in soft rayon dyed forest green.

Burgundy

I've been busy in the basement.  These two are Arashi Shibori scarves.  Where I wrap them around a pole like a candy cane, wrap string around to hold in place, scrunch it down to the end of the pole and dye.  The string both holds it in place and creates the pattern.

These were wrapped the same and in the same dye bath.  The one on the right is a soft, looser weave, rayon scarf.  It compresses more so has wider stripes of white.  The one on the left is silk crepe de chine, which doesn't compress as much so the amount of white is smaller.  And the color is a bit different because one is silk and one rayon.

Wine

Another scarf where the dye didn't move the way I expected.  Although this one was wetter than normal since the dye wasn't wicking across the scarf the way I wanted so I misted it with a bit more water. 

The edge isn't blurry because of the photo, that is the way the pattern worked out.  It really gives it nice visual texture with the contrast of the sharpness and the diffuseness. 

It looks like a nice wine, to go with the chocolate one I posted yesterday.

Chocolate

I really like the pattern that resulted on this silk scarf.  I stretched it on the frame, painted on the dye and sprinkled rock salt all over.  Salt attracts moisture and so the color can move along with the water it is dissolved in.  The more dye collected in one spot, the darker it is.  But different colors of dye react in a variety of ways.  Blue moves a lot more than red, for example. 

It also makes a difference how wet the scarf is or how large the salt crystals are.  If the salt just dissolves then it won't pull the dye around.

The chocolate brown dye I used for this one didn't move in the same way as the blue one in the post here.  It did give a really neat texture though.  Kind of like miniature leopard spots.  It looks like it should have a pebbly texture, but doesn't. 

See, chemistry matters.  And is fun.

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.

The sun

The first picture is one of the sun that I found due to this blog post, and is amazing. Who knew that the sun could look like that?


So this scarf is what I hope is similar colors. I would love to create something that looks exactly the same as the image. But I haven't figured that out yet.

Dreams

This makes we want to sing a modified Christmas song I'm dreaming of a psychedelic Christmas.

Project

These pictures are the same project.
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.

Stretching

This is the setup I use to stretch silk scarves. The frame is some left over salvaged flooring. What I installed upstairs looks a lot better than this.

By assembling it like a pinwheel, it makes it easy to adjust the size. The tongue and groove of it helps keep the pieces in place better.
The red things are regular woodworking clamps.
The blue silk hooks are attached with rubber bands to keep tension. When silk scarves get dampened they stretch a bit.
On the table is heavy vinyl from the fabric store.
I don't want the scarf to sit right on the vinyl so I put some pieces of 2x4s under the frame to elevate it.