Hand Dyed Radiance: A Silky Rainbow of Color

Last week, I showed you some results from my first experience dyeing Radiance, a 50/50 cotton/silk blend. I have a client who is making a stole for her pastor, inspired by the stained glass in their church. She wanted deep, glistening colors, similar to the colors in the glass, and a light green background color, so the stole could be used for the “ordinary” season, (a large portion of the liturgical year).

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!