April meeting - fabric dyeing

At our next meeting (Saturday 12 April) we will be working with procion dyes. Leah will bring the concentrated dye solutions and lots of soda. The list of things that you will need to bring is below. As usual this will not be a ‘taught’ workshop – it is entirely up to you to decide what and how you want to dye! So this is an opportunity to do more resist dyeing or to maybe do some graduation dyeing. Cost for chemicals will be about £5.

 

Leah will demonstrate ice dyeing (see photo above). If you want to have a go please let her know so she can buy the ice. One bag per person will cost approx. £1.50 and will give you enough to dye 3 or 4 pieces either quarter metre or half metre. You will need to supply the fabric and 1 or 2 containers to layer your fabric, ice and dyes in to take the home. If you want to do more, please bring extra ice – you could try ice cubes which would give a different effect. And if you want to try using dry dye powders rather than liquid dyes please also bring your own.

THINGS TO BRING -

Salt solution – dissolve 500g of the cheapest table salt you can buy in 2 litres of water. You’ll need to use fairly hot water to get all the salt to dissolve.

Fabric – procion dyes will only work with cotton, silk or viscose. Unless the fabric is sold as ‘prepared for dye (PFD) you will need to put the fabric through a hot wash to remove any dressings. Even with PFD fabrics it is worth checking how easily they absorb a drop of water, it should absorb instantly – if in doubt pre-wash the fabric.

Large plastic sheet, an apron or wear old cloths and rubber gloves.

A range of plastic cups and spoons for mixing the solutions.

Lots of containers for dyeing the fabric in and taking it home – plastic freezer bags for dyeing ‘solid’ colours, empty plastic pots for layered or parfait dyeing, trays for dyeing large pieces of fabric and for dyeing threads.

Kitchen towel.

Scissors for cutting fabric and a marker pen for labelling fabric / freezer bags.

Notebook to keep track of what combinations of dyes you use.

 

We also said we would use this session to dye one big piece of fabric that we will cut up and share – the idea is that we each then take this piece of fabric through multiple other processes in subsequent sessions to see where we all end up. If you want to ‘sign up’ please let Leah know. We will need to decide what size piece we are each going to have, what colour / colours we want to use to dye it and what dyeing technique we want to use next Saturday. Leah will bring the fabric (Whaleys Delphina Cotton Poplin).

 

And finally we said that we might have an ‘ugly’ fabric challenge – bring along a piece of fabric that you have dyed or printed but really hate and see if somebody else can turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan!

 

We’ll have a shared lunch as normal and a show and tell.

Samples from our March meeting

Here is a selection of samples from last Sunday's meeting at which we were experimenting with silk cocoon strippings. I'd like to thank Julie for leading an interesting and enjoyable session.

March meeting - Silk paper from cocoon strippings

At next Sunday's meeting we are going to have a look at the process of making paper from silk cocoon strippings. 

The paper produced can be thin and delicate or quite thick and sturdy and can also have things embedded in it. It can be coloured or painted, cut up or stitched into - Leah mentioned 3D objects but that's an area to experiment with!

Julie will bring the supplies we need to make the paper and a selection of things to include but if you want to bring your own choice of things - again it's something to experiment with, then small, non-bulky items are easiest. 

Things to try might include: 

snippets of fabric - your choice of colour and material! 

threads, yarn, wool tops, angelina fibres etc

small pieces of interesting coloured papers, labels, newspaper text or pictures

plant material such as petals and small leaves

glitter or sequins

herbal teas (red berry types) can produce interesting textured surfaces with a hint of colour

 - anything else you want to try - but bear in mind that part of the making process is spraying with water and then ironing (flower petals for instance will change colour because of the heat of the iron, plastics will melt!).

If you have an iron that you can bring then that will cut down on queuing time, similarly if you have any sort of water spray, plant mister or a re-cycled well-rinsed spray bottle then bring that too. Don't worry if not, we can always share.

Paper making in this way is quick and easy, Julie will demonstrate how to do it and then you can spend as much, or as little time as you like experimenting with the process. If you want to you can bring other sewing projects to work on too.

As always we will have a shared lunch and a 'show and tell' session!

Please let Julie know whether or not you are able to come.

See you on Sunday.

Amendment to previous post

Oops! We haven't managed to arrange the intended batik workshop on 16 May, so I've amended the previous post.

Meetings planned up to July

At the February meeting we discussed topics for the next few meetings. Here is what was decided. Dates for all this year's meetings can be found on the meeting dates page (see above).

Sun 16th March – Silk papers made from cocoon strippings – Julie will show us how we can embed threads and snippits of fabric in our papers. She’ll also show us how the silk paper can be moulded over bowls to form 3D pieces.

 

Sat 12th April – procion dyes – this will be an opportunity for those of you who want to do some more resist dyeing, clamp dyeing, parfait dyeing etc. and Leah will demonstrate ice dyeing. There will be a couple of group activities for those who want to take part. We will be dyeing a large piece of fabric to be divided up and each person gets a piece to use as a base to add layers of colour during workshops during in the year. Please also bring any ugly fabrics that you have dyed or printed but don’t like – we’ll have a lucky dip then see if we can’t turn some ugly ducklings into beautiful swans!

 

Sun 18th May – To be decided. We were trying to arrange a workshop on batik...

 

Sat 14th June – Using text to create texture – Leah and Julie will demonstrate a few techniques and then let us all experiment! Leah will bring procion dyes so that we can work onto cloth. The dyes will also work on paper but you may prefer to bring different inks. You’ll also be able to use the dyes on any pieces of batik you have from the previous class.

 

Sun 20th July – Cyanotype and sun printing are planned.

 

Working with sheers - revisited

At today's meeting, several us of we're working with sheer fabrics and here are a couple of pieces that are 'works in progress'. The first is by Phyl, who has added small areas of colour to a piece of paper lamination she made at an earlier meeting.

The second started with a piece of silk painting. Hilary has added colour with pieces of nylon organza and added extra colour with a further layer across the whole design.

I shall look forward to seeing both these pieces after further work.

February meeting - Using sheers revisited

After the last session on using sheers, I continued experimenting with nylon organza and the soldering iron and will be able to demonstrate a few alternative ways of using this fabric along with other fabrics. I will bring examples of combining the organza with acetate, wool felt, devoré velvet and satin, as well as using layers of nylon alone. Feel free to bring other fabrics to experiment with.

Suggested requirements:

Sheer fabrics. I will bring nylon organza, but you might want to use silk, fine cotton or something else.

Thicker fabric to use as a background (if required). White fabric will give a pastel effect (see example above), while coloured fabrics will modify the colours of the sheer fabric.

If you have them: Soldering iron, heatproof surface, metal ruler/straight edge.

Thread for hand or machine stitching.

Sewing kit and/or sewing machine.

As usual, please bring along something for a shared lunch and things for the show and tell.