Studio Snapshots | A Very Busy Day of Dyeing!

Saturday it wasn’t a gazillion degrees out, hooray! And with rain forcast for Sunday, I knew I had to make the most of a good day for dyeing, so I did!

First, I had to dye some more scarves for my upcoming show, and the next session for Dyeing 104.

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Then, it was time for some more indigo dyeing! I set up under the shade of our pomegranate tree:

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And started dipping!  

Here’s what I ended up with after washing and drying:

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I tried to make these fabrics very dark blue, and I believe that I succeeeded! I’ll tell you, indigo dyeing is a lot more “loosy goosey” than the dyeing I do with Procion MX dyes. With fiber reactive dyes, I weigh the fabric I’m dyeing, carefully measure the dye and water I use, and I can predict the hue and intensity of the final colors. Indigo, not so much!

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2 Responses

  1. What would happen if you overdyed those with Procion dyes to get a secondary color in the white fields? would it ruin the indigo?

    1. Good question!

      The hues added by Procion would be added to the indigo and white that’s already there. So for example if I overdyed it yellow, the white areas would become yellow, and the blue parts would become green. The exact hue of green would depend upon how much yellow was added to however much blue was already there.