Rather than nothing but screaming bright colors, there are tints of the orange, yellow and blue, a ruddy red to balance the magenta, and some brown as well.

I got some questions in the comments that I’d like to answer! I’m

Alison asked: I hadn’t heard of Radiance (I’m in Australia)… Am I right in thinking that you usually use different types of dye for protein and cellulose fibres? How does that work with them both combined? Also, are you going to use the silky side out, even though it has less visual texture? Would it look or feel much different to cotton if you put the cottony side out? Sorry about all the questions – but it’s so interesting!

I actually dye all my silk scarves just like cotton, with Procion MX Fiber Reactive dyes and soda ash. Silk is this really cool fiber that can be dyed in either basic or acidic conditions. So these are dyed in a single dye bath. But, the reason I did a test first is to see if the silk reacts differently than cotton, which it did, the blue got a little lost. The reason one would use Radiance is for the silky  sheen, because at 4 times the cost, one wouldn’t want to use the side that looks like cotton! So because I myself prefer lots of bisual texture, I’ll be experimenting a bit more to see if I can get more texture. But this is the exact visual texture my customer wanted, so tadah!

Man, there is nothing better than a pretty fan of luscious dyed fabrics!

Hand Dyed Radiance: A Silky Rainbow of Color is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

So I dyed some Radiance side by side with my regular PFD dyer’s cloth, just a quick trip around the color wheel to see how and if the hues shift on the Radiance.

After washing and drying, here’s what happened:

Very pretty! Just as vibrant as my cotton, with a lovely sheen! When you line them up side by side, you can see that the radiance shifts away from the turquoise a bit:

Where you see this is in the purple – it’s a bit redder, and the green – it’s a bit yellower.

One thing I didn’t expect about the radiance is that it has two different sides – a silky side and a cottony side. The silky side of the radiance has a lot less visual texture than the cotton, even though it was squished into a container with the same amount of pressure that I used with the cotton. Flip it over and you can still see a fair amount of visual texture on the back of the radiance:

Tomorrow I’ll show you what I ended up dyeing for my client! I really can’t wait to use some of this for myself!

Radiance PFD First Test is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

it’s for their “Ektorp” line, and is 100% cotton, and comes in two pieces. The two pieces makes it a it bit easier to control the dyeing, the more 3 dimensional something is, the harder it is to dye all the bits and pieces of it.

She asked for orange and turquoise with an all over pattern – and specifically wanted them to be vibrant. I pointed out to her that where the turquoise and orange meet there would be brown (because they’re opposites on the color wheel). She agreed, but I went ahead and just dyed a yard of fabric first to get an idea of how it would look:

Here’s a large portion of the yard:

and a close up of one region:

She liked this, and I was glad to have done the dry run so I could up the intensity of the colors. Here’s the finished product (I draped it over a much larger footstool I have, this explains the green sticking out of the bottom)

Once I sent her these pictures I was happy to get an email back saying she loved it!

Custom Dyed Ikea Footstool Slipcover is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

Custom Dyed Rayon Skirts and Shirt is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern

Many of you, as well as I, really wanted to see them installed. Well, I had some visitors from that church, including the pastor, at the show I did last week: we all enjoyed reminiscing about what a wonderful time our dyeing day was. Here are a few pix from the drying the washed silk at the end of our time together:

Well, I let my visitors know how much I wanted a picture of them installed, and look what arrived in my email inbox yesterday:

I KNOW! Isn’t it GLORIOUS? I think what really makes it is the hanging vertical stripes: those are vertical blind slats, painted by the worship committee, they are hung so they can move in the breeze. I love how the silk drapes, and it was hung so artfully, that twist in the center really makes it! You can just see at the bottom of the picture the other 3 silks they dyed that day, in colors from different liturgical seasons. I am so happy that it looks so wonderful, and even more happy that months later, the folks I visit with talk about how great that day was!

A few of you asked about the granting institution: it was from Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, the grant page can be found here.

Update on Community Dyed Silk: Pentacost Colors Installed is a post from: Candied Fabrics New in the shop: Versatile Messenger Bag Pattern