The Last Snow Dye

For this year anyway.  I love the mix of colors in these -- there is purple, turquoise, and some ultramarine.  I like all the greens and browns where it mixed with the orange.  The orange is a pure MX color, but the blue is a blend, hence all the cool colors.

So the forecast was for 50 degrees and sunny, so I was going to take some (unpaid) time off work and play in the dye studio.  Unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this yet, I was way too busy and could not take any time off work.  However, the forecast was wrong and the afternoon was damp, dreary, and decidedly not in the 50s.

So I did just these two pieces with the dwindling snow and some soft orange and sapphire dyes.  The snow was like tiny ice pellets and dirty (dog hair and who knows what).

I used the same technique for each: accordion folds and poured the dyes over in a stripe pattern.  
I let them batch inside on top of some green gradations I needed for something else I'm doing.

These are navy and lemon yellow with a tiny bit of golden yellow to make it interesting.

I have finally figured out how to dye light colored fabric.  I prefer really deep saturated hues and it's emotionally difficult for me to mix pale colors.  But the dark colors don't look good without the contrast of light.

 I mix my dyes in plastic beakers or used Chinese soup containers (they have really great fitting lids).  There are always drips and dribbles of color left in the container after I pour out the dye.

So now I mix a half cup of water in the container and roll it around to get all the color washed off the sides and into the bottom and then scrunch soda-soaked fabric into the pale color left.  I don't have to mix up those watery colors and I satisfy my need to avoid wasting any bit of dye.

It's supposed to rain all week, so all the snow will melt.  The best part is that the forecast (however inaccurate) is for unseasonably warm temps.  That just makes me happy.