Unique results of ice-dyeing

Remember the Sunrise blog series, photographs, linen napkins, and cotton quilted placemats: July 4-19, 2020? The linen napkins were very popular, I only have two left!! I was asked if I could make 8 more just like those in my Etsy shop SusettesHandDyedArt. Confidently, I responded yes!

I had previously made linen Sunrise napkins and the cotton Sunrise placemats on two different days and they came out very similar in appearance. The cotton quilted placemats were more orange than pink, though, whereas the linen napkins were more pink and lighter in general (Photo 1).

Photo 1.. Ice-dyed cotton for placemats (left) and linen (right) from first Sunrise dyeing sessions.

That the colors might come out differently was not a surprise to me for several reasons. The first is that ice dyeing is a bit imprecise, and I didn’t even measure, I only approximated the amounts and positions on the ice covering the cloth.

In addition, the same dye on two different fabrics can give different results (Photo 1). I dyed two different fabrics, a stretchy rayon knit for the lower portion for the dress, and a heavier cotton knit for the top part of the dress in the same dye bath (granny apple from Dharma (PR158)). The cotton knit came out blue-green and the stretchy rayon knit more granny apple green. A reason for this difference between the two fabrics, is at least partially that I used a fold resist method for the cotton knit pattern. In this case, the dye diffused toward the center between the plexiglass squares; the turquoise dye migrated through the cloth at a faster rate (see folded method in Photo 2). I used a a tied resist method for the stretchy rayon knit, thus, the majority of the fabric was exposed directly to the dye bath. The color was uniformly taken up except where the dye was excluded at the tied portions. The rayon fabric was finished using a leaf stamp and heat set pigment. So the overall dress appearance is quite a bit more appealing because of the differences in method of resist and uptake of the dye into the fabric. Of course in this case I was surprised but delighted by the differences it being the first experiment of this kind.

Photo 2. Dress made from hand dyed fabric.

Photo 3. Preparation for dyeing rayon (tied) and cotton knit (folded).

Coming back to the linen napkins and more recent experiments on color combinations, I have dyed 5 different lots of linen since the first lot using folding resist and ice dyeing techniques.

With each new color combination and folding experiment, the joy of ice-dyeing comes from the beautiful color combinations as well as surprise and delight felt upon seeing the outcome: the unveiling! The Christmas present or birthday unwrapping feeling, particularly when you are a child. Ice dyeing can give both subtle or bright, bold results based on a number of factors. These factors determine reproducibility (the ability to precisely repeat the results). It helps to be a scientist to know the detailed recording of steps is required for in duplicating experiments, but that isn’t sufficient. To understand the dyeing process thoroughly, one should have training in physics and chemistry to understand diffusion rates and dye chemistry. I think about dyeing fabric as a playful enterprise and not necessarily striving to reproduce a previous result, although the latter requires careful note taking in order to fill an order on my Etsy shop if someone requests more of a particular color lot.

The results of a few dyeing sessions are shown in Photos 4-5.

Photo 4. A Sunrise linen napkin against linen dyed with a different dye combination.

Photo 5. A Sunrise linen napkin (Bottom), a pinker linen napkin using different dyes (Top), both against linen dyed using ice dyeing then overdying using ice dyeing but with a different set of starting colors.

Check out my Etsy shop for the latest in ice-dyed heavy linen napkins!

Silkscreening, dyeing, quilting, but phooey, no color discharge.

PUTTING COLOR ON CLOTH

Back to writing about the silkscreening project of Tree No. 4 after my last science-inspired post.

I began with an experiment in silkscreening using three pieces of cotton fabric. I wanted to compare several methods to solve two issues.

The first issue is that it is difficult to control is the rate and pressure of pulling the ink across the screen. Experience helps of course, but once the ink is deposited there isn’t much you can do if you got too little or too much. I often get too much.

The second issue is I acquired a taste for texture in the trees through a serendipitous silkscreen painting: my Silkscreen Tree No. 3. Now, I want to look for other ways to achieve a similar result.

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ASIDE:

Let me back up and explain that when I made Silkscreen Tree No. 3 I made a happy mistake. That’s another way of saying thank heaven for serendipity.

ser·en·dip·i·ty /ˌserənˈdipədē/ noun

1. the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

   "a fortunate stroke of serendipity"

The silkscreen serendipity on Tree No. 3 is as follows; I pulled the blocking solution (insoluble red screen filler) on the wrong side of the silkscreen - opposite to that where the drawing solution (soluble blue screen filler) was located. Then, realizing my error, I pulled the red screen filter solution on the correct side covering the fully dried blue solution. When after drying, I rinsed the blue solution away, some of the red filler solution stuck unpredictably in places along the tree trunks. This looked great upon silkscreening some fabric!! Much more interesting than solid trees with no texture. A mistake and serendipitous finding; but can it be repeated? Maybe, but I chickened out trying this method on the next silkscreen I made, Silkscreen Tree no. 4.

If you are wondering how the silkscreen process works in more detail, check out the Speedball how-to videos and representative screen shots I made (Photos 1-2):

Applying drawing fluid video

Photo 1. A screen shot taken from the Speedball video on screen drawing.

Applying screen filler ink video

Photo 2. A screen shot taken from the Speedball video on applying screen filler.

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BACK TO THE STORY of Silkscreen Tree no. 4

The screening process I experimented with this time was to silkscreen ink onto a piece of cloth (cloth piece no. 1) using the traditional method of pulling the squeegee loaded with ink across the screen which was pressed close to the fabric. For cloth piece no. 2, I inverted the just-screened cloth piece no. 1 loaded with ink onto a fresh cloth, piece no. 2, and gently rubbed the back of the two-cloth sandwich. This resulted in excess ink transferring from piece no. 1 to piece no. 2. Seeing that there was still extra ink on piece no. 1, I repeated the procedure on a fresh cloth, piece no. 3. Cloth piece no. 2 has some texture but no. 1 is solid.

Photo 3. Silkscreen cloths from upper right then counter-clockwise: no. 1, no. 2, no. 3.

As is apparent from Photo 3, cloth no. 2 is lighter, appears as a reverse image, and has some texture along the tree. Cloth no. 3 has much fainter trees. I then dried the silkscreen pieces but did not iron them to heat set the color to make it permanent. I wanted to wash some out in a washing step to see if that would add some visual texture to piece no. 1.

Next, I dyed the fabric using Cerulean Blue (see Photo 4). I planned to discharge the color partially from the center portion by stamping a leaf pattern using color discharge paste. This would give the appearance of bits of the sky showing through leaves, or so I hoped. But nothing happened (as seen after rinsing).

Ok, it didn’t work so maybe the solution was too old. So I prepared fresh discharge paste and painted the mixture over the whole middle portion. This time, I was stunned to see the blue turn instantly to yellow (Photo 5). Fearing the worst, I rinsed the cloth and dried it. Surprise: the yellow turned back into the original blue (not shown).

I gave up color discharge on Cerulean Blue.

Instead, I decided to overdye the piece with Granny Apple Green in a shibori folding method (Photo 6). Then I could color discharge the green to reveal the blue and the illusion of sunlight filtering through green leaves with some blue sky visible.

Photo 4. Fabric piece no. 1 overdyed with blue.

Photo 5. Still wet, painted with discharge paste, the blue turned rapidly to yellow/colorless. The silkscreen paint is a heat set paint and not subject to color removal.

Photo 6. Overdyed with Granny Apple Green dye in a shibori folding pattern. The blue from the first round of dyeing shows through in places.

I couldn’t help myself; one more try with the color discharge using the leafy sky stamp (Photo 7)!! This time I should see blue instead of green. The white pattern you see in Photo 7 is dried alginate (I took the picture before washing the fabric).

Photo 7. Color discharge using a leafy sky stamp carved by Kathryn Sandberg, a scientific and artistic collaborator. This image was made after ironing to activate the color discharge. but before washing. Part of the white pattern shown here is dried sodium alginate which is used as a thickener for stamping. True results discovered after washing revealed no color discharge again!! It would have been pretty!

Failure again. Could I have forseen all of this? Did I prove to myself that Cereulean blue and Granny Apple Green are resistant to color discharge? Yes. I might have guessed if I had thought/remembered to consult an old color/ color discharge test I had done. I expected at least to see green turn to blue. You decide! (Photo 8 has the evidence).

Photo 8. The TOP photo is the color version and the BOTTOM photo is the same image converted to gray values to make value comparisons easier. The arrows on the left point to the stripe of Cerulean Blue while the arrows on the right point to Granny Apple Green.

Next blog, I will detail the quilting of this piece and discuss texture, stamping, close and far viewing of the piece, and ranges of color tones and values (light and dark). See you then! Comments are allowed on this post but I am struggling with how to make the comment box appear at the end of the blog!! Maybe one or another of my sons can help! Good excuse to call them right?