Sunday, May 27, 2007

A Good Day to Dye




















The aforementioned beautiful weather yesterday turned cloudy, windy and cold. But Danny and I had decided to dye fabric so we donned our coats and dye we did. I had not dyed any fabric for months. I love doing it, every time I do I think, why haven't I done this in so long? It's messy of course, but I think I tend to overestimate how much work it really takes to get things going. Just mix up some soda ash solution, some urea water. So anyway, I just love it. I love the spontanaeity, the mystery of how it will turn out. I usually don't try for a specific outcome, just a general idea, and I'm usually happily surprised. Maybe it's the lack of precision I enjoy so much. In my work I have to be precise all the time, so I need to let loose! That, and I LOVE COLOR.

Danny loves color too. He is such an artist. Here's a picture he drew of a porcupine. I think it's so creative and has great use of color. I love children's artwork anyway, but it seems to me that usually at his age (6) kids are aiming for realism, and he seems to go for abstract.















The fabric we dyed is for a quilt inspired by the colors of the Caribbean Sea on my and Mark's honeymoon last month. It's going to be a snail's trail, or monkey wrench pattern. I need a lot more colors, but I ran out of fabric. An e-trip to Dharma Trading Company is overdue. I think I will break down and buy a few more colors of dye. I've tried to be a purist with only red, yellow and blue. But I need some lilac and tan colors for this quilt, and I can't seem to make good ones from scratch. Brown is really hard, always turns out too orange or too green, and purples turn out gray. At least I tried, I really did!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I loved the dyed fabrics and Danny's porcupine was fantastic. I have never dyed my own fabrics, how do you get started?

sewkalico said...

Lovely to have hobbies that you can do with the kids. I've been meaning to try my hand at dying and am almost set. Once I get some experience I'd like to try sun printing with my eldest.

Your dyed fabrics would be perfect for making New York Beautys!

Rosalind said...

The colours of your fabric are beautiful!
Danny and your dog look like really good friends :o)