Shibori Shiraz

My outdoor dye place - I love my sink!

Yes, its been a while and I'm not even going to say why....

But I'm back at it and working at getting my creative mojo happening. This summer was spent dyeing amongst other tasks and I did a LOT of ice dyes, they are gorgeous! I'll do another post sometime and show you the best ones...but I also delved back into Shibori in a small way. 

Since moving to our small island my dye studio is outdoors and really just happens in the summer but last year I made some Shibori that worked very well as water on a quilt and I knew I needed more. So this is a little tutorial to show my version and it involves wine....

1. Buy wine that has a uniform diameter bottle, no bulbous or fancy shape - buy the cheap stuff with a screw top and drink it all!
2. Gather your wine bottles - fill them with water - and the same number of juice jugs, not one or two but at least three bottles and three jugs.

Measure the circumference of the bottle and add 1 1/2". Tear a strip, full width from selvedge to selvedge (no cutting, just tear) that measurement. Sew the fabric into a tube with a scant 1/2" seam allowance.

Pull the fabric tube onto the wine bottle, working from the neck down is generally easier. Place an elastic band at the bottom ( I like the thicker elastics from broccoli), push the tube down as far as you can and secure with another elastic at the bottom.

Mix up a soda solution in a bucket: 1/2 cup soda solution + 1 gallon of warm water, stir well. 

Place each bottle into a juice jug and pour the soda solution into the jug to the top of the fabric and let soak for 20 minutes.

Wearing a particle mask, mix 1 teaspoon of dye powder into 1/2 cup of water and stir well, some powder may float to the top so take a couple minutes to stir well.

I like to vary the intensity of the colour between each jug so I'll put a little bit, 2 tbsp. or so in the first jug, a bit more in the second and then finally the remainder in the last jug. Plunge each bottle gently up and down to get the dye mixed in the jug.

Let the bottles soak in the dye solutions for 2-3 hours then remove and rinse well.

Now comes the fun... there are endless colour and value combinations but I'll walk you through how I can get so much variety in a simple way:

• make 2-3 batches of the dyed tubes, each a different colour - say red, green or blue
• then take one red tube and two blue/green tubes (different values) and put them into a batch of yellow
• from those three put them into a bronze or purple batch
• there's no need to wash the tubes in between dye batches, just rinse, hang to dry and start again with a soda soak for 20 minutes and new dye colour in the solution
• I repeat those steps over and over with different colour combination. Usually I only do three colours on one fabric, sometimes I'll stop at two if I really like them
• one of my favourite is to dye with"indigo" from dharma Trading - it looks like the real thing but is a fibre reactive dye!

Once I have a batch of these tubes I unpick the stitching and I wash them all in the machine on a hot setting with a bit of Synthrapol detergent.

They really do glow beautifully once Ive ironed them ...

An Easy Colour Study to Try

Is this how you feel about colour? Does it challenge you beyond endurance? Keep in mind that the more we work on something, it more skilled we become. This is true for truck driving as well as our art!
Last week, I taught a class on Design Explorations that focused on some of the Elements of Design and my students loved this exercise involving magazine photos and coloured papers. You can also do this with pictures in magazines.

Find a picture you like and tear it out. The find all the colours in the picture by cutting small pieces of those colours or painting them and glueing down beside the mail picture. This exercise is about looking and seeing how many possible colours there are in just one simple photo.

Another exercise is is to cut out pictures of one colour and glue them down in place. This will teach you about some of the possible values, tints and shades of that colour.

Now, how about trying some of your own?

Free Dyeing Workshop!

There's lots of great information that you can access online, what to know something? Google it! Want to take a class? Sign up? Something to buy? There's Paypal! We love to be connected, there's whole universe out there with just a click of a button (or two)!
I've prepared a short video for you that introduces you to dyeing gradations of colour, those groups of fabric (and maybe threads) that dye from light to dark in value. You can't have too much dyed fabric, right?
Well, now its time to learn just how simple it can be! You can check out my video and learn the basics of Colour Gradations:

 

And if you love that one, then I have a 45 minute video on a variety of dyeing techniques and so much more....Check it out here: http://susanpm.com/online-workshops/

Five Easy Dyeing Tips That You Need to Know!

Often I hear from students that they would love to try dyeing fabric but they think its a long, involved, messy process. Sometimes they think they need very specialized equipment, noxious chemicals and a large space in which work.

In truth, a table or the top of a washer/dryer and easy access to water are the only necessities. I've been making luscious hand dyed fabrics for many years and tried just about every technique possible and the fact is, you can do a lot with very little!
Here are some tips to make your dyeing experience fun....and easy!

1. make a dye concentrate

Instead of making up a dye solution each and every time you want to colour some fabric, mix up your colours in easy, ready to pour concentrates. I mix 8 ounces of water, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon dye powder (double for lemon yellow and black) and keep them all in squeeze bottles, ready to go. They'll keep for 4-6 weeks, longer if you refrigerate them.

2. always have fabric prewashed and ready to dye

That's a no-brainer....buy it, wash it! Its that simple!

3.  dye threads and fabric together

If you are dyeing fabric, throw in a couple skeins of embroidery floss, some perle cotton or whatever! See how amazingly gorgeous it is??

4.  make colour gradations
If one yellow is beautiful, then think about how much better having twenty yellows could be!! Make more, make more! If you are not sure how, then check out my free video workshop here:
http://vimeo.com/89749580

        5.  ok, here's the last tip....................make a trip to the dollar store of most of your supplies!

You will probably need some measuring cups and spoons and maybe a water jug or two. Never use the stuff from your kitchen and the cheapest deals are as close as the dollar store. While you're there you might find some great items for stamping on fabric, some birthday cards and gift wrap, cute hair barrettes for the grand daughter,  new pots for the garden, socks for the neighbor, storage bins for the kitchen and.....well, you get the idea!

Have a good one!

Learn all about Soy Wax!

Curious about how Soy Wax works, all the possible ways to apply and use Soy Wax? Looking to expand the techniques you already know?
Then join me for an exciting two days of dyeing, printing, painting and more as we make beautiful cloth!

 

Set aside March 12-13th for a colourful blast of fun! Students design their own unique one-of-a-kind fabrics using simple tools, dyes and soy wax…no messy clean-up, just wash this wax away!

Students will be using colour and pattern in new ways with sponging, stamping, drizzling and dabbing. You're sure to have so much fun making dynamic and exciting fabrics for all to admire.

Simple techniques and perfect for the beginner designer!

 

The workshop will be held in Duncan, BC in a beautiful 1200 sq ft. studio, located in a country setting. Join me and many others while we create and inspire each other!

 

You can get further details here: http://www.studiogart.com/workshops/ or email me: susanpm@shaw.ca

Playing with my Gelli Plates

Last week I took my Gelli Plate to our cottage, pulled out my paints and paper and had a good time messing around with colour!
First I put some colour on the plate:

And spread it around with my brayer. The more fluid the paint, it shrinks up with the tension, wonderful texture:

 

Then I printed off a page of paper or two......

 

Then I printed off more pages, then I ripped them up:

Then I put some of them back together again:

Intrigued? Stay tuned for my new online workshops starting in January....the first one is Print It, Print It - Gelli, Block and Roller Printing!