Monday, December 21, 2009

snow dyeing

Having snow is not that usual here, but since Thursday the world here is white. It looks very pretty, but I can't say that I like it. The good thing is that it gives me a chance to dye with real snow - instead of having to crush ice. Here are two pieces of fabric I dyed yesterday. On both I used a high percentage of dye concentrate. I did not measure it exactly, but it is around 15%.

As I was dyeing for fun I did not record which dye powder I used for which piece of fabric. On purpose I used mixed dyes, because with them you can see the breaking down of the different colors so well. I presoaked the fabric, scrunched it and put it into a colander. On this I put as much snow as the colander could take and poured the dye mixture over it. This I put on my kitchen sink. It took about 4 hours before the snow was melted. To boost the colors I microwaved each piece of fabric for 2 minutes. I noticed if you do not do this, the colors are much paler.

6 comments:

dorie said...

like the snowpattern in it. this is also on my list 'wanna do once'- you're right this is the best moment with 20cm snow!

Thelma said...

I always love seeing the results of snow dyed fabrics! Think you are the first to report doing snow dyes this year! Love that second piece!

Hannie de Beer said...

Wat zijn ze prachtig Wil! Je kunt nu nog even experimenteren, met al die sneeuw!

Robin Olsen said...

You got beautiful effects from this, and such rich color!

Godelieve said...

Wat een leuk idee!
Ik kan je emailadres niet vinden om te vragen of ik je foto mag gebruiken, om naar jouw blog terug te linken?
We verzamelen allerlei creatieve ideeën op http://creatiefblogvandeweek.blogspot.com/

Cath Wilson said...

Wow, what a fab idea!! Thanks for sharing and inspiring :) Great use of snow, lol.