Last year when I was taking a wonderful weeklong class under the tutelage of Rayna Gillman at John C. Campbell Folk School, I suffered a horrible bout with sinusitis, ending up in the Urgent Care Center for treatment, and missing a day with Rayna. When I came down with this most recent bit of crud, Rayna emailed me and said to be careful, since I was after all the Queen of Sinusitis. Well, it came on suddenly again on Wednesday night and REALLY layed me low. I am better now, and will be eternally grateful to my sweet husband for his loving care and to our neighbor ENT who knew just the ticket to a somewhat speedy recovery. So from now on I will heed Rayna's warning, and take even better care of myself.
I did a bit of freeze dyeing (that is a difficult term for me to spit out as I want to call it freeze drying, like the coffee!) earlier in the week, taking advantage of our colder than usual winter weather.
First I soaked my fabric (this was some of the leftover muslin that my friend Joani gave me a month or so ago) in a soda ash solution, spun the excess liquid out in my studio washer, then scrunched it all up and put it in a plastic bag, and hung it outside of my studio for about 48 hours. The temp never got above freezing during that time period! Then I poured some leftover blue dyes over the frozen ball, followed by some Pro Chem Khaki Procion MX dye.
The colors aren't very vivid, but what I really like are how they blended together, so in some areas you see the colors together but yet separately....does that make any sense? It is quite nice!
If you've tried freeze-dyeing and have a good technique, I'd love to hear about it. I know that some folks use their freezers for this, so that is always a good option.
PEACE
6 comments:
Judy,
When you do your freeze dyeing do you keep the fabric cold while the dyes set or do you warm it at that point? How long do you let the dyes set? It's a very cool technique! I hope you feel better soon.
Now I know what freeze dying is. I should try it while it's still cold here but I doubt if I'll have time. Maybe next winter.
Anything that has to do with going outside and freezing in the same process, you can have it all to yourself! Now, I'm really glad you're feeling better.
This sounds really interesting - good post. Can you do damp and soggey dyeing? (lol)
So glad you are feeling better.
Warm Regards
K
Sounds like a rough few days. Glad to hear that you're on the mend.
--Russ
I used to be the queen of sinusitis (I really should knock on wood right now),but I did two things this winter. I stopped using my cortisone nasal spray which I found out has a side effect of causing sinusitis. And I ritually do the saline rinses. I usually am on antibiotics at least 2 or 3 times a winter.
Do take care and I hope you are felling better.
Oh, and I love the freeze dyed fabric. I could have done that last week, but I think our freezing temps are over for a while.
Post a Comment