It was a transcendent day at the dyeworks yesterday. I found the right
music (thanks
Vin), surrounded myself with all the tools and materials and worked the fabric directly on the table like I was working pizza dough (but not too much kneading).
Some of this fabric is top shelf 400M and batiste from
Testfabric, some is mongrel cotton from
OHCO, some vintage damasks from strange tables in distant times. Spirits
in the cloth.
Now for the fun. Finding out just what went on in all those mason jars and baggies over night. These are wet so don't get excited yet about the intensity of the colors but there was almost no dye in the rinse water. A portent of good things.
These were rinsed in tubs of water that stood overnight on the deck. I feel for all the generations of women who hauled the laundry down to the river to pound the clothes on rocks and rinse in the freezing streams! I'll let these drip dry for a while before I try to haul them upstairs to the washing machine. Many of these pieces are destined for further transformation through discharging and textile paints.
This beats using a dryer any day but I'm real glad that I didn't throw out my old ironing board. You know, the kind you can adjust for ironing while sitting. My grandmother is spinning in her grave.
The rusty business in the middle here is one of my favorites.
The spotty looking things are in a preliminary state. Painting comes next.
Some of these things look like skins taken from non-terrestrial beings.
My "Custom Blood" recipe worked out quite nicely. I usually don't dally much with reds unless they are close to neutral.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. All delicious.
