May 2018 – I Dyed it My Way

Please join me for a day of colorful, messy fun on July 21, 2018 at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology on the beautiful Oregon coast. We will use natural objects such as flowers, branches, leaves and grasses as reverse stencils while we paint on cotton and linen fabric with thickened fiber reactive dye. Bring an apron and rubber gloves; I will provide all supplies and materials. We will mix our own colors from two blues, two reds, two yellows and black, using a technique which gives impressionistic results.

Select from a variety of projects including linen placemats and table runners, cotton bandanas, rayon scarves, or cotton pillow covers. Additionally I will have a bolt of Kona cotton, suitable for designing your own fabric for quilting, apparel, table linens, wall hangings, etc. The workshop materials fee includes $20 worth of product; more will be available for purchase at cost, so paint all you can in a day!

We will use brushes, foam rollers, sponges and spray bottles to apply the dye to soda-soaked fabric, then wrap in plastic to take home and “batch cure” overnight. The dye reaction will take place in the damp fabric over 8-24 hours at room temperature, then you will rinse and soap to remove excess dye and see your final results revealed. I hope to see you there!

Linen placemat reverse-stenciled with sword ferns.

Cotton bandana reverse-stenciled with flowers: daisy, chive blossoms, seed stalks of spent bluebells.

Rayon scarf reverse-stenciled with evergreens: cedar, cypress, sequoia.

Rayon knit scarf reverse-stenciled with feathers.

Cotton T-shirt reverse-stenciled with Black Locust leaves.

Painting on fabric is something I have always loved to do, and in recent years I have tried it with pleasing (to me) results on my own handwovens. I weave yardage with white, light- or natural-colored yarn, usually, but not always, in plain weave. With thickened fiber reactive dye, I use brushes, rollers and sprayers to create abstract designs in bright colors on cellulose fibers, e.g., cotton, linen, rayon. If the yardage is of adequate size, I can sew it into something wearable.

Recently I completed two items made from handwoven and dye-painted rayon. One was woven with a seed yarn originally dyed in a pale sage-green color. The seeds are made during spinning from a shiny rayon thread that is plied and allowed to build up a little bump on another ply; the result is they look like reflective little beads. Another item I made was woven from white rayon yarn in a textured twill, dye-painted and fashioned into a long-sleeved tunic.