I approached the BLT dye day with a plan, something I have not done before. On my list was to try ice dye, a shibori wrap I watched Ruth do at the SDA weekend, and to overdye some of the monoprinted fabric from the SDA weekend. This was a more productive way to approach the day.
The ice dye technique involves covering your fabric with ice, or you could do snow in the winter, and then sprinkling powdered dye on the ice and waiting for the ice to melt. My research of the subject came up with one example that used multiple layers of fabric, ice, and dye. I had a gallon jar that was just asking to be used in this way.
Even though it was the hottest day of the year—we hit 100°—it took forever for the ice to melt. I vowed to wait until the bitter end but caved in to curiosity by 6:30 that evening. I had fabric that was leftover in the soda ash when we cleaned up, so I dumped some of the ice onto it while I unpacked and rinsed the other fabric from the jar.
I was a bit worried that the bottom layers of fabric would all come out solid black. It didn’t look promising coming out of the rinse. I tossed it all in the washing machine and crossed my fingers, hoping for the best. When I pulled the material from the washer, out came some of the most exciting fabric I’ve dyed to date!
This is a technique I would like to explore more. I would like to combine this with folding and tying or with a resist of some sort. There are many aspects of this that intrigue me, and it is the only form of dyeing to really make me excited to do more.
My stash of fabrics for the September class at Art Makers Denver has grown substantially in the last few weeks.
