My Dye Spot 2014

January 26, 2014January 27, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Here is where I have tried to organize my natural dye stuff. My sweet DH is so understanding,

This used to be the office as you can tell by the real wood blinds and Ralph Lauren paper on

the walls. The Oriental rug has been taken to storage leaving the concrete floor.

Old Patron liquor bottles make wonderful dye extraction jugs. These were put together

this morning with acorns, the one on the left with ammonia and the right with alcohol.

I love that the extraction was almost instantaneous and you can see the dye coming off the nuts.

This is a tray of lichen we gathered on our walk the other day. After it is dry, I will crush it to extract the dye.

The color will depend a lot on the mordant I use.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek inside my spot. We have our eyes open for an old kitchen sink and cabinet to make a wet area.

Ironed Snow Dye Fabric….WOW

December 10, 2013December 13, 2013 | JP Dawes Artist

Who knew that the simple act of ironing this fabric would make such a difference. Each piece was better than the last. I am showing a few photos of some of my favorites. I really like the way the colors crack and separate. As a side note, the middle 2 pieces were on a pale taupe fabric and the bottom one was a pale mauve. Like under painting a watercolor, the base color gives an overall glow to the fabric.

Linked up with Off The Wall Friday!

New Eco Bundle steamers

November 18, 2013 | JP Dawes Artist

Last year I bought these wonderful shallow stainless steel pans at a church garage sale for 50 cents each. I had no idea what I would do with them at the time but they were just too good to pass up. They have lounged in the far back corner of the bottom cabinet since they came home.

I was cleaning the cabinets and rediscovered them! I was so pumped that they are just what I needed to steam my eco bundles. I have 2 of these and the lid fits super tight so there is no steam escaping in the kitchen.

The bundle on the left is a long pink scarf that is getting recycled with eco prints. The right bundle is a sleeveless cotton tee that is just my size. The silk is sandwiched between two metal plates that Ron drilled steam holes into. I love how they make marks on the fabric. BTW, these were mordanted in alum and cream of tartar before bundling. Then they were sprayed with vinegar water. I’ll show the reveal in a few days.

Dyeing Black with Rit Dye

March 28, 2013July 10, 2013 | JP Dawes Artist

NO, this isn’t a what’s for dinner post. Although, this is my most favorite sherbet and brand of cottage cheese. We save these containers for use to store Beneful for the pups in small quantities that are easy to take along if we go on a trip. But they also get confiscated for use in the studio, too. The box of Rit dye is Black. A local store had a basket of black Rit marked for less than $1 so I stocked up. Black is such a hard color to dye. MX dyes can be cantankerous so I figured what did I have to loose by trying these out.

I am getting ready to start a quilt to jury for the Pet Project special exhibit at Houston and I need a lot of variations of black. This was a perfect time to try this cheap Rit dye.

The first photo is a piece of high thread count cotton that started as the palest taupe color that is not quite white. I bought an entire roll a couple of years ago for $5 at a yard sale. It has a wonderful hand and dyes beautifully. I used it almost exclusively for indigo dyeing a couple of years ago and loved the results.

The next piece I used was a pale tan piece of dupioni silk. That is shown in the bottom picture with my toes and at the left next to the cotton. The silk actually came out darker but I love them both.

So here is what I used the containers for. The cottage cheese container was used to pre-mix the powdered dye in 1 cup of boiling water. Then I used the sherbet containers for the fabric. I added salt to the container for the cotton; about 1/2 C and 1 C boiling water before I scrunched the fabric in. For the silk piece I added 1/2 C vinegar and 1 C boiling water before scrunching the fabric.

Then I took the pre-mixed Rit and poured 1/2 over each of the tubs of fabric and topped them off with just enough boiling water to cover the fabric. I popped the lids on and let them sit until this morning.

I tossed both into the washing machine for a rinse cycle and then a full wash cycle. I checked both by rinsing under the faucet to be certain the loose dye was gone. I’m pretty pleased with how these came out for a minimum of effort. I’m extra pleased because that store had Orange Rit in the close-out bin this week. Guess I have more dyeing to do. AND its the weekend so I’m linking this to Off The Wall Friday