Fabric + Dye + Ice Cubes = Awesome!

At a recent SAQA meeting I met fellow fiber artist Carol Ludington. She was so enthusiastic about the results of her dying with ice cubes that I needed to learn more! Carol was kind enough to share her knowledge with me (taken from an article in Quilting Arts Magazine) and very supportive of my desire to learn. Let me return the favor by sharing our combined ideas and results.

Soak fabric in warm water and soda ash for about 30 minutes to prepare the fabric for dying. Fold or scrunch fabric into a bucket.

Place a layer of ice cubes on the top of the fabric

Sprinkle a layer of powdered fabric dyes over the top of the ice cubes. Choose whatever colors appeal to you - think about how the colors will mix and what secondary color you might get.

It's really hard but you'll need to wait for 24 hours... you can peek but you can't touch!

It was soooo worth the wait! Once the 24 hour period was up I rinsed the fabric in cold water until the water ran clear. Next I tossed the fabric into the washer with hot water and Synthrapol.

  

Here are two more pieces of cotton. The piece on the right was put into the bucket first. I layered the ice cubes and powdered dyes. Next I placed a second piece of cotton on top of the ice cubes and dye and repeated the process. The bottom piece defiantly had deeper colors but I love them both. I also dyed silk and silk gauze with great results.

While chopping celery one day I couldn't help but notice how cool the celery "end piece" looked. It had all the makings of an interesting stamp. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the project for a few days and the celery shrank a little but I ventured forth and to my surprise the print reminded me of a rose! What do you think?

It does look a little sad...

I applied some fabric ink to the celery

Apply firm pressure

A rose is a rose...

A garden of celery or a garden of roses?!

Afternoon Gossip

I love watching birds especially in the winter. When the snow comes down hard or it's really cold the birds fluff up their feathers as much as possible trapping the heat; it makes them look like little round puff balls! When the birds are all lined up sitting along the telephone wires I wonder what they're thinking about. Sometimes the snow will start to pile up on them but they don't seem to care. I imagine they're busy with their friends sharing the afternoon gossip and don't notice the harsh weather.  

Afternoon Gossip

The center panel was handpainted and each bird was designed and created separately.

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