I wanted to do a comparison dyeing between silk and cotton.
Of course, I understand that there are many variables involved, and I probably only
hit upon a very few. I did use the same amounts of dye powder for each fabric,
the same environmental conditions, the same yardage, and the same amount of batching time.
Oddly enough, the cotton fabric on the left, took far less color than the silk, on the right.
I wonder why that is? Perhaps it has to do with the manner in which I sprinkled the dye powders
onto the ice, or the order in which they were sprinkled. I don't know.
Perhaps someone with more knowledge on this subject will leave a comment.
I will try this experiment again in the future with other dyes.
The cotton on the left was dyed yesterday, and the silk on the right is the same piece
you saw yesterday, Day 5.
200 Days wouldn't seem like a long time if you were in prison, right?
Well, not if you compared it with a life sentence!
(Any day in prison would seem horrible.)
For this 200 days, I'm doing one of the things I love the very most, dyeing,
and the results are always exciting. I like the 24-hour waiting game....
it's almost like waiting for a grandchild to be born when you don't know the gender....
and yes, we are still waiting on that one too!!!
It is so terribly hot and humid here right now, I really feel for our daughter.
The moon will be full on Friday night, so if the baby doesn't come before,
I feel sure it will arrive that night.
My friend Meg left a great comment the other day.
Yes, Meg, I am also a procrastinator, so that is one reason I wanted to
challenge myself publicly. Remember, this isn't 200 days in a row,
it's 200 days in a year.....so like a 'real job', Monday-Friday
with perhaps a few days off for good behavior.....and new babies!
Here is today's block for Maggie's quilt:
The butterfly's head is a bit cattywampus, but she is has it turned,
looking for a flower!
Thanks for stopping by.
Peace to you and yours.
2 comments:
Without actually going to some source material, my first guess would be that the silk is lighter in actual weight than the cotton, and many dye recipes use a rule of thumb based on total weight of fabric. Thus, there would be a higher percentage of dye to weight with the silk which would give a deeper saturation.
And then there's the whole thing of silk vs cotton. I have a book that shows a photo of at least 6 different types of fabric (cotton, linen, silks, etc) that were in the same dye bath processed exactly the same and some look like they came from a totally different dye.
Caveat I am guessing here from a sometimes faulty memory! It's been awhile since I dyed on a regular basis.
I tried snow dying this past winter. All of my cotton looks just like yours. I thought I did everything right, followed all the directions, but am very disappointed with the results. I chalked it up to the fact that I'm not an experienced dyer and tossed my pieces in the 'this needs a lot of help' pile! Think I'll stick to silk if it snows again!
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