I had another session with the indigo dye bath the other day. This time I dyed some floss on the stitch bow holders. That helped keep the floss from tangling, but again, I had resist areas at the ends and also in other places on the strands just because they didn't oxidize well when held together that way.
I took the piece with the interesting markings from last time, cut it up and did another rolling around the corks.
This was my dye set up on the back lawn. I managed to get a photo of the top piece before oxidation had fully occurred. Below is what the golfers saw as they went by. I wonder what they thought of what I was doing? I tried to hurry because I thought I'd surely get a call about "airing my laundry in public". I had it all cleaned up within two hours though and never got a call!
The floss around the rolled bundle has a nice mottle appearance.
And here's the fabric just as I unrolled it. I didn't like all the white space so much so I dipped it quickly in the dye bath to get a pale indigo color on some of the white spaces.
Here are the results of indigo day #2. That dark piece on top is some silk velvet. The silk was the only piece to get so dark, just a feature of silk I think. I left it in the dye bath for the same amount of time as the medium blue cotton and linen.
More gorgeous floss.
Below is the silk velvet, Kona cotton crush and a cotton/linen blend.
Below is a vintage linen tablecloth with some cutwork.
The two pieces that I cut up way up near the top of this post are below. On the left is the piece that I folded and clamped. As it went along in the dye process I'd move the clamped part around and finally took off the clamp and did one last quick dip to get the pale sections. On the right is the rolled bundle. I really need to get some large diameter PVC to get a bigger piece of fabric with that fabulous striped section.
Below is a vintage linen dresser cloth with crochet corners and edging.
Below, a sheer cotton hanky and Kona cotton crush.
Below, a thrift store cotton shirt with a great weave pattern and a large piece of harem cloth.
Close up of the shirt from above. This will add some nice texture to my work.
At this point you might be asking what I will do with all this! Well, Jude's latest class, Cloth to Cloth 2, started on Wednesday, so I've already done some basic weaving with all these blues. More on that soon!