Dye Job!

 

Yesterday, after the gardening chores were complete and I backed out of painting our little barn, I decided to have some fun playing with some dyeing. I had read a couple of techniques recently on Pinterest and wanted to give them a try. Here's my review with a rather unexpected ending.

 The first technique I tried required Sharpie permanent markers, rubbing alcohol, and an eye dropper. The technique came from The Art Girl Jackie on Pinterest.  It seemed easy enough, avoided a lot of mess by using the markers, and gave a permanent finish without any further treatment. 

I used silk dupioni  that had been washed. It was then soaked in a half water half vinegar solution for half an hour as a mordant process. Then the piece was ironed dry. Keep in mind that this was just a fun play project for me and if it worked, well, I was on to something new for the toolbox. 

First you draw some vague designs with your Sharpies. Only prob here was that all I had were fine points. This would have been much more effective with regular Sharpies. Then drops of good ole rubbing alcohol are dropped on the marker scribblings to do their thing. The ink will disperse and blend. It continues from what you see above but again would have been better with the heavier tipped markers. Opinion: metza metza, and bette with the right Sharpie. Not a total waste of time however. I have found when I do these tiny dye jobs that further embellishment can totally change their look so this is no loss here. 

The next technique came from Pea Soup of the Day.  She wanted to do some dyeing with her kids that wouldn't be toxic and this really appealed to me. Seemed simple enough. I pulled out my Wilton paste dyes for this and used her wool dyeing technique on more strips of dupioni. These strips will eventually be smocked and I like the edges to have more definition.

 I followed her directions more or less. I dipped a damp Q tip into the paste and rolled it and dibbed and dabbed it around the damp strips. I liked the effect. Now it was time for the microwave. I layed my strips on some paper towels which was on top of a dinner plate. I didn't want the dinner plate to get all yucky so I wrapped it in plastic wrap. DON'T DO THIS! I have dyed with food coloring many times before and found it to be quite safe and fun. The issue became the plastic wrap. She has you put the textile into the microwave for five minutes and check now and then that it continues to be damp. Towards the end of the five minutes I could smell a slight plastic-y smell but barely. I took the strips out of the micro, sprayed them with water to remoisten and nuked them FIVE MINUTES MORE! Does seem like a too long time, doesn't it? At about 3 minutes into the second nuking the plastic smell became very strong and I figured I needed to remist the the strips. I opened the micro door and in a flash I went down for the count. With the help of some cabinet knobs I pulled myself up and got to the front door where I called my husband. My legs could barely hold me up and I felt horrendous. He came over, smelled the smell, and helped me to fresh air. We nearly called 911 but with fresh air I was slowly coming around. After about twenty minutes I was back to myself with a huge lesson learned, HUGE. Don't nuke anything with saran wrap for ten minutes unless you want ot visit your good friends at the local ER. The plastic wrap was melted INTO the dish which we threw out, of course. DH aired out the house with fans and all doors and windows open and life got back to normal pretty fast.

Here are my results. Not sure it was worth losing my health over!

I changed course and decided to smock some silk velvet. This was a play date with myself and other than the plastic wrap incident something I found highly enjoyable. I've always loved dyeing things and like the intensity of playing with small efforts. It will be interesting to see how these get worked up into something. Hope your efforts aren't quite as exciting as mine....Bunny