I'm always looking for interesting ways to use my dye extracts and have been painting with the dyes on wool and wool/mix fibres, yarn and silk hankies for quite a while. I want to bring you lots of different techniques over the next year and to start I've got a blog post from Dionne Swift, a textile artist from Huddersfield, who draws, paints, dyes, prints, stitches and embellishes.
Her latest blog post shows her in her studio drawing with Procion dyes on fabric. I'm not a lover of Procion dyes, there is a lot of dye residue that washes out of the fabrics which goes down the sink, but we can use natural dye extracts in the same way by thickening the dyes in solution. If you don't want to use Manutex, as Dionne does, gum tragacanth can be used and is available at cake decorating supplies.
Helen Melvins book, Colours of the Rainbow, shows you how to use natural dye extracts with a thickener on fabric. All Helens books are very useful and well worth having on your shelf. Her knowledge of natural dyes and indigo in particular are unsurpassed.
Notes from the sketchbooks and archives of a dyer and her friends.
Showing posts with label painted yarn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label painted yarn. Show all posts
Tuesday, 4 January 2011
Sunday, 13 June 2010
Workshop at the Bowland Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers
On May Day I was at the Bowland Guild in Lancashire to tutor a workshop using Pure Tinctoria natural dye extracts. It was a lovely day weather wise and proved to be a lovely day teaching wise, too!
I was amazed at the number of people attending, I usually limit the numbers to 10, but they were prepared to bring more electric hot plates and additional pots, so we had at least 16! And with the remainder of the guild spinning at the far end of the room, away from our hot plates, the room was packed. Obviously Health and Safety came into very strict play, to prevent any accidents and everyone was really patient waiting their turn to weight dyes and yarns/fibres.
Here are a selection of pictures that the guild took at one of their meeting the following month which shows what a fabulous range of yarns were produced that day.
Yarns ranged from handspun to commercial, fine to chunky, plain to boucle!
We did centre pull ball dyeing using two colours, painted yarns and fibres and indigo!
There were fibres including tops and home produced alpaca and mohair.
I was amazed at the number of people attending, I usually limit the numbers to 10, but they were prepared to bring more electric hot plates and additional pots, so we had at least 16! And with the remainder of the guild spinning at the far end of the room, away from our hot plates, the room was packed. Obviously Health and Safety came into very strict play, to prevent any accidents and everyone was really patient waiting their turn to weight dyes and yarns/fibres.
Here are a selection of pictures that the guild took at one of their meeting the following month which shows what a fabulous range of yarns were produced that day.
We did centre pull ball dyeing using two colours, painted yarns and fibres and indigo!
And every colour of the rainbow was produce.
All in a day!
Amazing!
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