Monday, June 04, 2007

Dye Results



I am mostly recovered from 5 straight information-packed days of fabric dyeing, and I thought I'd show you what I did. In the piece above, we were to choose a color, aim for a particular color (which I achieved) and I experimented with a scrunchy-fold pattern I really like. We were using only pure yellow, red, and blue dyes, by the way.

In this shot I tried another scrunch pattern.



This orange one is an experiment scrunching fabric into a small cottage cheese container. I like the yellow effect but the lack of contrast is all my fault...my colors didn't have enough contrast and all bled together... so it has less variation than I wanted but it's a gorgeous, vibrant orange.

Here's a blue/fuschia/purple one. Pretty, huh?

And this is an experiment with folding and multiple colors. At this point I was just using leftover dye. Talk about a flash-back to the 60's, eh?! But it's fun and I think I'm doing to treat it as a whole cloth thing and just quilt on it.
On another note, I wanted to thank you all for the commiserating emails and helpful suggestions for my sleep issues! Actually, at the suggestion of a friend I saw a doctor who specializes in Chinese medical treatments and for the last week I have been taking an herb concoction that seems to have done the trick. She tells me that under the theory of Chinese medicine, insomnia and menopausal things are caused by imbalance among bodily organs, and herbs are used to get things back in balance. So, it's not about taking herbs to sleep...it's about using these substances to get my body back in balance so I am sleeping naturally. And you know, I think it's worked. I now am getting into bed and actually falling asleep! It's lovely.

6 comments :

  1. Your dyeing turned out wonderfully well. The last one would certainly be hard to cut into.
    Glad to hear you are sleeping better.

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  2. Love your dyed pieces. That orange especially is yummy (even if it doesn't have the contrast you wanted). Glad to hear you are sleeping well again, it's awful when you feel tired all the time.

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  3. I've spent the last year studying Chinese health theory and your friend is right. :)

    Your dyeing attempts are wonderful. That last piece just made me laugh right out loud - love it!!

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  4. Diane I'm very happy for you on both fronts!

    What a great idea for the last piece. You'll have lots of fun quilting that :)

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  5. Dianne
    I'm so jealous, lucky you, what fun. And all the fabric is yummy. I just love creating my own special fabrics.

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  6. That last piece is fantastic!

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