Dye Hard

It has been a glorious week here. Sun every day and real warmth. It really does feel like Spring is just around the corner and I just want to get out and about but there are tasks that just have to be done. One of them was completing the little zippered bags I wanted to make with my indigo dyed fabrics. I have put it off since my previous post, primarily because, although I understand the principles of putting in a zip, I invariably cobble it together and make a mess of it. Anyway, I went for it yesterday morning and finished all four bags. They don't bear close scrutiny but I really like the patterning on the fabric so hope they take someone's fancy at the Wonderwool event. I still have a few oddments left and I've just been told that my friend's baby (which is now overdue!) will be called Indigo so I already have an idea for a present I can use the last few indigo dyed remnants for. No waste. I like that. A lot.

I also cracked on the other day and overdyed the silk scarves for Wonderwool that I plain dyed last week. I was triggered into action by a video link I was sent. It featured a textile artist using lemons, limes and grapefruit slices to discharge tea dyed fabric. One of those little lightbulbs went on in my head and I remembered using lemon juice to discharge some felt I once dyed with potassium permanganate on a felting summer school. I had a little pot of potassium permanganate crystals in my shed, bought from the chemist a couple of years ago. I don't actually know what people use it for from the chemist (probably better not to know.....) but it is an irritant so I always wear gloves and a mask etc. The crystals are brown but turn a wonderful royal purple once they hit water. It is an amazing shade which disappears as soon as the fabric hits the dye pot as everything turns all shades of brown very quickly. The less crystals, the lighter the look. More crystals give a darker, chocolatey brown but timing is crucial.

I used a thin plywood shape secured around each scarf with elastic bands to act as a resist and set about the task. Potassium permanganate can only be used on certain fibres effectively. Silk is one of them but time is, as I said, of the essence. There is a real time limit to doing this with two to four minutes being the absolute maximum required to get an effect. I was on a roll churning them on a little production line but then it all went haywire.......

Being a domestic goddess (who laughed?) I was also making a blackberry and apple pie at the same time. The cooker timer pinged at the same time as the oil delivery man turned up and it all went a bit pear shaped from there! I love pink and brown together but when I retrieved this lovely scarf from the dye pot after the distractions it was more holes than fabric.....

This stuff destroys fabric if left too long and, as you can see from the cobwebby effect above, it realy does work fast. I was so disappointed because there were some beautiful markings on this scarf that my photos don't do justice to. Of course I could still nuno felt into it for some unusual textures or maybe it could be incorporated into some other textile. Who knows? At least I have completed stage two of the scarf task. Now I have to decide if I am going to discharge into them with screen printing or leave well alone. Perhaps with my track record I ought to take the second option!