Sugar dyeing

A few folks have asked about sugar dyeing. I wish I had done a few process photos while I was doing the last batch but I wasn't thinking about making a tutorial just then. Plus I was working with two left gloves - someone's idea of fun while stocking the grocery store shelves I guess. Sugar dyeing is not all that exotic. There's nothing really chemical going on. "It's MECHANICAL" to quote Bugs Bunny. When I first started dyeing my own fabric I read bits and pieces about different ways to bring the dye and cloth together including the salt dyeing process I found at Paula Burchs' fabulous site. I took a stab at it but wasn't in love with the results on regular fabric. When I started dyeing damasks, I took another try at it but I had a new idea of what I wanted the salt to do for me. Keep in mind this technique may not work unless your humidity is high like here in Georgia. Do you know why you put a few grains of rice in the salt shaker? To keep the salt dry. At high humidity salt and sugar crystals will take on a bit of moisture from the air - simple kitchen science. I started with a half cup of rock salt in a small plastic container. Left the lid off overnight, out on the deck. Readied a piece of damask soaked in soda ash on my work table. Dust mask plus wet neckerchief and goggles in place. No breezes. (I do all my dye work outdoors- ignore safety rules at your own peril). Folded a quarter teaspoon of dye powder into the salt. The dye sticks to the damp crystals. As I work, I change colors by just adding more dye in to what's already in the container. With a spoon, I sprinkled the salt/dye mix over the fabric. Rolled the fabric up lengthwise and then coiled the roll. More or less manipulation of the coil at this point will blur and distribute the dye or not. Pop the coil in a zip loc baggie and let it bake in the sun for the rest of the day. I rinse the fabric by hand in a cold water tub and follow up with a hot water machine wash with Dawn and machine dry. Where does the sugar come in? I ran out of salt! Sugar works just as well as salt.

almost home

Jimmy was sort of half sprung from the hospital today. The medical doctor cleared him to leave pending the surgeon's approval but the surgeon was too busy running through the halls with a chain saw. He finally popped by after I had gone home promising to spring my man in the morning. I nipped out in the middle of the afternoon to come home and see what had become of a batch of damasks that I had pushed into a stew of soda ash the day before Jim's surgery just about a week ago. What was I thinking? When I opened up the container I half expected 20 gallons of mush but the cloth seemed OK so I went ahead and sugar dyed it all. I have a "what if" in mind for some of this fabric. Nothing fully formed, just a notion. I was busy elsewhere so daily life has taken a back seat. My pool has been sadly neglected this past week and all manner of strange things just came out of the skimmer and dip net. I just hope I can get back in the water to do the real cleaning. The water has cooled down a lot and hurricane Fay will be drenching us in a day or so.

caesura

Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers and expressed concern for my husband's recovery. Jim is on the mend. He took his first solid food in a week last night and seemed to be tolerating it when I came home from the hospital last evening. My mock nursing was getting on his last nerve. While I was gone this weekend, Raquel cleaned my house and it was such a pleasure to come home to peace and order when I had expected the chaos and clutter that I had left behind. The only room she wisely didn't go into was my studio. I peeked in, looked around cracked the windows and closed the blinds. A storm is coming soon. The mess in there is dispiriting in a small and laughable way at the moment. I had no photos for this post and found this one in a file on the computer. I know the piece is in the studio somewhere, unfinished, but I'll be dipped if I can find it.

Thanks for asking

No pictures, just the facts. I have been sitting by Jim's bedside in the hospital. He is recovering from surgery to remove a section of his colon where cancerous lesions were found during his first routine colonoscopy. I won't preach. Can't preach because I have not yet had my own first checkup - it will be scheduled shortly - just know that his doctor said that another very few months would have made the difference between a good and a poor outcome. Bumping up against mortality in this way has us both rattled to the core. And that business about sitting by his bedside? That's a lie! They have huge, high tech lounge chair that I spent the first night sleeping in but the next day Jim found he was more comfortable in the chair than in the hospital bed so at any point in the last 72 hours nurses and doctors have found me sleeping, sprawled out and generally lounging in the bed. I'm just home for a moment to count cat heads, change, shower, brew myself a decent cup of coffee and head back to duty. A duty I am so grateful to be performing. More when I can.

Bundles

Pursuant to the discussion I had with myself on the previous post I've started hacking up some of the larger pieces of fabric I have in my stash and putting together little sampler bundles. This from a girl who thought nothing of wearing striped socks with a plaid skirt. The individual pieces are roughly fat quarter or dinner napkin sized and total up to more than a square yard. Plenty to mess about with. I'll be listing them on Like Hotcakes adding more bundles as I keep grouping, ironing, folding ....it sounds like work but it's kinda fun. I just have to remind myself that these little beauties are headed for someone else's studio or sewing basket.