All posts tagged: dye

dye party.

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It had been a minute since my crafty lady crew gathered for a crafternoon. We’d been dye-ing to create together, and we’d each been hoarding loads of fabric for the occasion! Here’s how it all went down. We prepped our materials. One day prior, we washed our fabric in natural detergent (for best results!). On the day of we mixed powder dyes plus warm water in squeeze bottles (for classic tie dye) and in buckets (for dip dyeing). We set up our work stations so we had an area for fabric manipulation and soda ash water soaking, an area for dyeing, an area for fabric resting before rinsing, a rinse station, and an area for hanging (and taking photos, let’s be honest). Next we folded fabric. I like to fold all my fabric at the same time, then dye all at once to limit having to rinse or change gloves too many times, and also the chance of me getting unwanted dye on the next fabric I touch. But the process is up to you! …

natural dyes.

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I’ve been wanting to learn how to dye with natural dyes so when Craft + Work offered a class I totes fangirled and jumped on the opportunity! Our instructor was Heather Marano, hand-dyer, designer, and knitter extraordinaire. She brought some samples of her hand-dyed and knitted projects for inspiration. Heather walked through the dyeing process and showed us swatches dyed with different plants and food scraps – like turmeric and red onion skins. We prepared our fabrics by soaking them in water and creating optional folds and knots. Heather prepared our dye baths. We decided on cochineal (bug scales!) which produces reds/pinks, logwood which produces purples, and weld and marigold which produce yellows. Dip and soak! For some pieces I soaked my fabric in one color; for others I layered dyes. We experimented with different types of fabric and different soak times. My favorite dye bath was the marigold; it smelled like a vat of tea. Or maybe it was the cochineal because those pinks! Our color palette was very Spring. So pretty! I love …

all the crafts!

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There were so many classes to choose from at Craftcation – over 50 for each day! Most required pre-registration, but there were others that were drop-in and you could also get waitlisted for classes, too. Here are a few I got to take on a whim! Each day there were casual crafts set up poolside – what a lovely setting! They were less structured and more open play; you could stay for as little or as long as you wanted. I taught one of these casual sessions (my mini succulent terrarium craft) and attended two others: terrazzo jewelry (above) with Jennifer Perkins and fabric dye coloring pages (below) with friend roomie Rebecca! I don’t play with clay much so it was fun to learn a trendy technique – I would love to create some clay beads and charms to use in my pomtass crafts. For fabric coloring, we used rainbow patches and Jacquard liquid color. I’m thinking I’ll make a mini plushie with my rainbow patch. After teaching back-to-back classes, I still wanted to make …

ice dyeing.

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What’s fun about Craftcation is that they bring makers together from all over. That means crafty knowledge and expertise abounds and you get to take all kinds of crafty workshops. My super talented friend roomie Rebecca taught a number of dyeing workshops and I got to join her for one of her ice dyeing classes. Ice dyeing is so magical! Rebecca gave an overview of the chemistry and art of ice dyeing and provided a demo. She had lots of samples, too, for inspiration, and she even made recipe cards if you wanted to work with specific color combos. This was helpful in trying to narrow down what colors to use (because I wanted to use them all!). We each dyed a bandana and a pair of socks. Similar to shibori dyeing, you can manipulate your fabric with folds or ties; you can also simply crinkle your fabric or leave them flat. The ice does lots of magic as it melts. The water travels and moves the colors throughout the fabric. First, we prepared the …

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” …