Dyeing to dye

When one thinks of tie-dyeing the first thing that comes to mind is hippie spiral shirts in extremely blinding colours. while doing an internship I spent two years working for Melanie Brummer, a tie-dye artist who has dyed many fabrics that have appeared on catwalks around the world and I learnt that this art form can be very stylish.

In these two years where I had learnt so much about various techniques of dyeing various fabrics I have become quite addicted to dyeing fabrics and have made it my main specialty within Textile Design. simple dyeing turned into product development and for a range in my fourth year I dyed 12 wall hangings of 2m x 1m each on pure cottons and silks using multiple processes of dyeing in different colours layered over each other and adding hand stitching to add texture and depth.

This project inspired the range of scatter pillows that I had the opportunity to sell at DecoreX and in the space of two month I dyed, stitched and made over one hundred scatter pillows. After this endeavor I thought that I am cured of my dyeing addiction, but then i saw a new technique.

Dyeing with ice has entered my world and I am dying to try it. I find myself lying  awake at night thinking of various ways to try this new technique and I cannot wait to finish my exams, buy fabric and try it.

So what is the moral of my story?

It is quite simple: I have found something that just keeps on exciting me. Dyeing fabrics is very unpredictable and even making one hundred pieces in five different patterns I was always excited to see the result. No matter how much the process is controlled and standardized, each piece looks different. Try dyeing some fabric, it really is a whole universe of possibility and you might be surprised at what you can do.

Peace and love
Clara

Crochet Block Challenge

I love crochet, I knit as well but the instant feeling of gratification one gets from crochet can not be ignored. So after being out of it for a little while, I saw this morning a facebook group for crocheters were starting a block a day blanket. After carefully reading the guidelines, I figured why not do one?

How it works:

1. Pick a yarn (Colours and textures).
2. Pick a pattern, there a thousands for free on raverly, including this one.
3. Pick a hook that works comfortably for your hand.

Note, I didn't buy all the yarn, I have two balls of I love yarn French Affair that I had gotten as a present. So using them and then will be getting a the next colour. I am thinking of muted greens, blues and white for the colour scheme.

I also got a puppy for assistance, he is very keen and a great use-my-moms-foot-as-a-pillow, assistant. 

The aim of this is to have a wonderful blanket by the time the year is finished, I am honestly going to be keeping an eye on how big this gets so that I don't land up with a blanket bigger than my room.

Dying to colour wool

I love yarn, I spend way to much money on it and find myself obsessing about spinning and weaving, both crafts I do not yet do. A while back, I wanted to learn how to dye yarn but my access to dying yarn and knowing what I was doing is limited. After a lot of research I figured it out.

Clara aka the Ginger will be able to tell you all the fancy names of the dye processes, she mentioned them over coffee today and I completely forget what she called it. I think cause we were both so tired, printing is hard work.

So what you need:

• 1 Ball pure wool yarn
• 1 cup of Vinegar
• 1l of water 
• Gel food colouring
• Container

Steps:

1. Soak the wool overnight in a container, in the mix of vinegar and water. please note in this I soaked the entire ball after unwinding it and tying it into a large loop.
2. Carefully lift the wool out of the container and add a few drops of the food colouring to the vinegar water, intensene as desired, the more colour the darker the wool. 
3. Put the mixture in the sun for a few hours or a warmish place. 
4. Carefully remove the wool from the container, and rinse it clean. 
5. leave to dry, in order to dry it faster, I wrapped it around the back of a chair and put the chair in the sun. 

For the ombre effect, I put more food colouring in with every ball and added darker colouring as well. The exposure to the food colouring if you used enough viniger, results in the dye being picked up fairly fast by the wool.