Indigo dye

Indigo Dye Dipping is not just for Fabric

| JP Dawes Artist
My two teenage grandsons have birthdays coming up. This is always a gift giving problem. One is a freshman at William and Mary and the other is in high school.  I’m tired of simply sending cash or gift cards since I don’t think they mean much to them. They do, however, write short thank you notes, actually sent in the mail and not electronically.  
As Liz and I finally got to do our indigo vat, I got into my envelope and heavy card stock to make up blank card sets. I dipped one edge of both the card and the envelopes in the dye.  They do look masculine don’t they?   I have a stash of nice leather samples from a furniture store. As luck would have it when I folded them over and stitched up the sides they were just the right size for a case for the cards.  I tied them up with a heavy round black elastic band for a closure. Now all I need to do is buy them each a pen for the set and they are ready to give.  I’m linking with Nina Marie’s Off The Wall Friday

Black Walnut Dye #2

| JP Dawes Artist

 Since the walnut dye pot was still on the stove I pulled a couple of previously dyed fabrics from my stash to see what happened with an over dye. The blue is from an indigo vat, the print was dyed with MX dyes and the one piece is rust dyed.

I also put a piece of hot pink cotton, some cheese cloth and a piece of white cotton batting in the pot.   I put them all in at the same time which was a leap of faith but probably not something I should have done. I’m not a dyer, I only play once in awhile if the occasion arises.

I think either the indigo or the rust piece still had residue from the original dye. Which ever one it was, and I suspect the indigo,  saddened the dye. So instead of a nice soft brown in the white areas, I got a soft gray. You can see it in the last photos.

I think I like the rusted piece the most but there are no ugly fabrics. They all have a place in a piece that isn’t  created yet.

My finished Indigo pieces

| JP Dawes Artist
Below are some of pieces from the Fabric Fondlers indigo dyeing days. These were all experiments since none of us had experienced this before. We tried different kinds of resists with blocks, bands, clips, shibori pole and others. A really cool piece that I don’t have pictures of was clamped between 2 pieces of peg board. I did a few pieces without designs in case I decide to cut any of this up to make a pieced quilt.
It was a lot of fun and each fabric that was revealed was better than the last. We all did shirts and socks, too. Even my hubby Ron got an indigo tie dyed shirt out of the day.