Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Dyeing with Friends

Several months ago, one of my friends asked me if I'd help her dye some fabric which she wanted to have made into sofa cushions.  I agreed, but with some trepidation as I'd never undertaken such a large endeavor.  Since I was overwhelmed with other family matters at the time, and she wanted to get started, I suggested several books that she might read, dyes and dye houses that she should consider, and methods that she might consider.  She is a glass maker and a retired Home Ec teacher, so she is no stranger to experimentation and tinkering.  She found the fabric she wanted to use, dyed the background to a hue acceptable to both her and her husband's discerning eyes.  Today was the appointed day to get together and put her chosen marks on her fabric.


A week ago, I was furnished with hand drawn designs from which to make Thermofax screens.  She had ordered her dyes, played with them and was comfortable with the colors they produced.  She had also made a plethora of stamps, and hunted around for many wonderful 'found items' for stamping.   Print paste had been prepared in advance and when I and another friend (also a glass artist) arrived, it was time to mix the dyes, figure out the placement of the motifs and get started!  We had a great time!


Here are my two favorite glass makers hard at work - or hardly working!



We had TEN YARDS of 60" wide fabric to add our marks to!  Phew!!!!


We had devised a plan where we would approximately duplicate one design area twice across the width of the fabric.  I would screen the three Thermofax screens roughly in their assigned locations, repeat it again in the other half of the fabric width, and then the glass makers would add their stampings and doodles.  Then it was my turn with the Thermofax screens once again.  The yardage began to roll along, off of the table and across the garage floor.  We were on a roll.



My friend is very inventive, and when we thought we no longer had a way to keep the yardage rolling along, she drove her little Prius into the garage and we began rolling the fabric over it.  Next we enlisted the help of some tall screens (which you cannot see, on the other side of the Prius) to further drape the yardage.  As you can see above, we had finally reached the end of our line.  It was a LOT of FUN........and I can't wait to sit on her sofa cushions and enjoy a glass of wine!

PEACE

8 comments:

Cate Rose said...

Cool fabric for a "hot" day! Very nice!

Gerrie said...

Wow! That is impressive. I can't wait to see these made up.

Jeannie said...

What a fun day!!! I love the marks you all made and look forward to seeing the "finished" project. Are you going to take up glass making? :D

Linda’s Textiles said...

Fabric looks great and you obviously had a fun day!

Beverly said...

That is neat, and the fabric looks gorgeous. What a great way to spend the day!

Karoda said...

from the sound of things, you were were rolling along in more ways then one :)

Elizabeth said...

What fabulous fun!!! They could not have done this without you!!! Bravo for taking on such a project!! seems the Prius came in quite handy as well!!!!

diane said...

Ten yards???? And I think that two is a lot of real estate. Very creative way to handle the bulk and it must have been fun to have a group approach to the mark-making.