A Day to Dye

I've been pretty quiet here lately, mainly because family activities and work have kept me away from doing much worth mentioning here. But I had a very fun day last Thursday with my buddies Pat, Janet, and Gerrie, when we experimented with pole dyeing a la Robbi Joy Ecklow.

We set up on my patio, which has a large expanse of concrete and a cover which makes being out there quite pleasant on a hot day. I bought 6-ft. lengths of PVC from the hardware store (they cut them for me right there) and I rigged them by duct-taping them to the tops of patio chairs. I put large plastic trays under the poles (to catch the drips)...and Pat came with the plastic tray thingies they sell for wall paper. I learned that next time, I'll spread plastic tarps under the whole area, as we were a pretty splashy, spattery bunch. You can see the photos in progress here, on Gerrie's blog.

My goal for the day was to try some different colors than what I usually do. I typically head straight for fuschia, turquoise, and bright yellow, and mix the gorgeous clear colors that I love to work with. But I wanted to stretch my palate and create some different pieces...so I tried all different things, including chartreuse, avocado, bronze, royal blue, and more.

I've got a few pieces left to iron, but here are a few of the results:






The process was very fun. And, knowing we'd go through a lot of dye, I invested in a dye-mixing-only blender (from my local drugstore for $12.99) and a box of canning jars. Did you know that the basic canning jars will fit directly onto the blender, so that you can mix right in them? It definitely made the dye mixing process faster and easier.

I definitely need to make time to use some of this gorgeous fabric!