13 Search Results for: dyeing

indigo.

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Next up on my Summer Skills List: indigo dyeing. This time I dragged my friend Danielle! 😆 We took class at Handcraft Studio School in Emeryville with Alexa of Euclid and Jayne. We learned all the basics and had the best time experimenting with different techniques. The class fee included two pillow cases and one tea towel, and we were encouraged to bring some extra small items to dye as well. I brought two infinity scarves and another tea towel to complete the set. (Dharma Trading sells some great items for indigo dyeing!) You don’t need much to create beautiful designs, but you do need some space for getting messy. We used pieces of wood, rubber bands, clamps, and a ladle. Yes a ladle! Before: After: The final colors were a few shades lighter after I rinsed the excess dye and ran it through the washer and dryer. Check out all the lovelies made by my classmates! Now I want to indigo dye everything. I see blue sheets, dresses/skirts, and giftables in my future!

fish pickles.

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My last wish list skill for my summer learning was fish pickling and curing. I know what you are thinking — “That’s totally awesome!!” (See macrame and indigo dyeing, too!) I had been wanting to take a class at Preserved for a while now and as I perused the class list, pickling and curing fish, stood out to me as a unique craft. Even though I know people have been doing this for centuries this is a completely new to me endeavor. And this time I brought my friend Lennie along for the fishy ride! Preserved houses all the supplies for all  your preserving needs. I got to class early and spent the entire waiting time just staring at the shelves, imagining all the things I could make. Our instructor Danny is a fish curing expert, and class was like a live cooking show, complete with food stand ins. Danny reviewed a number of curing and pickling techniques, and we got to feel, smell, and taste the various methods. My favorite technique might have to be the water-vinegar …

wax on, wax off.

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Staff meetings at Sticky Art Lab are far from ordinary. This last meeting was no exception. Sure we talk business, but then thanks to boss lady and owner Rachel we get to play and learn a new crafty skill. On the agenda today: batik! Maitland, batik hobbyist and overall cool fella, walked us through the process. Batik is a dyeing technique in which you use wax (in our case paraffin) to make designs on cloth (we used a cotton muslin) and block the dye from coloring those areas. Sounds simple, but getting color to go where you want is a little tricky. First we bathed our cloth in an ash solution. The ash is suppose to help the colors stick to the cloth and prevent bleeding. Ideally, cloth should soak for thirty minutes or more and then dry completely before the next step. Next, we applied melted paraffin to the cloth either using stamps or brushes. Maitland brought some kitchen tools and we had wire and other metal items to play with. My favorite “stamps” …