2/17/2012

Moving on

Life is looking up this week. I no longer sound like a frog. I can get out of my chair without a great struggle and the temperature is actually on the positive side of the zero for the first time in weeks. To make things even better I had some great success with the dye pots this week AND my bead loom arrived in the mail. I am a happy camper =D


When getting this last dye batch together I was having such a difficult time coming up with a color combination. Iwas getting ready to dye the largest amount of material at one time that I have ever done. When you are staring at several hundreds of dollars of gorgeous white fabric it takes courage to start dumping dyes in that pot. I mulled for days over what to do and finally I picked this palette:


I was a little worried about the combination because I knew I would get greens in the mix with the yellow and blue tones being present but in the end I decided I didn't care. I also knew that the blues would not be as deep unless I wanted to use a different dye. Silks can be quite picky with certain colors especially blacks and darker blues. So I threw caution to the wind and mixed up my giant dye batch.


The results in my mind were glorious! Does it exactly match the palette I picked? No, but it has the spirit of it and that's what I was going for.


The velvet of course is much deeper and way vibrant and usually I enjoy that more but the softer touch is what appeals to me in this batch, though I love them all. I adore the silk gauze and habotai. The ribbons are just luscious! I am quite thrilled with this one and I can't wait for my next batch.



My second highlight of the week was receiving my bead loom and I love it! I looked at them long and hard before I bought one and decided before hand that I wanted a wood one. This one is perfect for me. Although I may make some more side bars that are longer if I want to do bigger pieces.


I set to work right away making up a pattern and this is what has come of it so far. I wasnt sure if I would like doing loom beading but I love it. It is another way to satisfy my urge to create with patterns and color and it is not a great strain on my eyes. I find myself more and more treating my eyes gently. I think the eye problems of the last year scared me more than I wanted to admit at first. I am trying to find ways of expressing myself creatively without the great eye strain I was putting myself through. This looks like it might be a good one!
Hope you have all had a wonderful creative week and have a peaceful and renewing weekend!
8 comments on "Moving on"
  1. Hi Dianne love your dyed fabrics, they're awesome !
    hugs
    chris richards
    xxxxxx

    http://ellascraftcreations.blogspot.com/

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  2. The velvet is just ... I'm speechless. So wonderful. Glad to hear about the beading. There are so many ways to be creative; I'm sure you can find more techniques that will allow you to produce beautiful things and yet not strain your eyes.

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  3. Looooooove that velvet!!

    Such gorgeous colours.....I could think of a few things to make with a piece of that!

    Glad you're feeling better....and it was a pleasure to include you in the Leibster posting over at mine :-)

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  4. The dyed silk fabric is exactly what I've been trying to recreate after seeing a re-vintaged watercoloresque tie dye silk slip at What Goes Around in LA. Do you have any advice for dying a silk slip? If you don't mind me asking-- How did you do it? I was considering using RIT dye and sponging (or paint brushing) on the dye. Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I can't afford their $$$ version :)

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  5. I would not recommend sponging for this effect and I wouldn't recommend RIT dye either. I use procion dyes and I used quite a few of them for this project. I am not sure you could even come close using RIT dyes. Since I was shooting for some specific colors my formulas are kinda tricky. Some using 3 or four dyes for one color. The method I used would also be difficult to recreate with one slip and impossible with rit dyes as rit dyes require you to heat the cloth. My dyes are cold process. I would recommend you buy a small dye kit of Procion MX dyes. dharma trading has great prices. I would then lightly scrunch the slip into a small container. You want it to fluff up at least an inch or so. Then add your dyes in a random pattern keeping the patches somewhat small. dont saturates it too much as it will well in the bottom. I would even consider scrunching another fabric underneath to prevent muddy colors n the bottomside. Good luck!

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  6. Thank you for the great advice! I am so glad I found your blog via a google search :) I will let you know how it turns out when I find a slip to dye.

    Natalie

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