dye

After the Disaster: When It All Goes Wrong

| ellenanneeddy

I like to think I know what I’m doing in my studio. I do know better.

Every so often something happens that just can’t be helped. Sometimes it ruins a perfectly good piece. Sometimes it transforms it.

I’ve been working on this piece for over six months. It’s taken time because it’s so large. Smaller pieces are easy to see, easy to feel secure about, easy to finish. Larger pieces take time.

I was having a problem with the moon. The Angelina fiber hadn’t fused well, and I was having trouble stitching it down. So I laid a corn starch stabilizer over it and stitched it down. It was fine until I poured water on it to dissolve the stabilizer.

I hung it up to dry. I didn’t realized what had happened until I had looked at it for some while the next day. There’s really only one Procion dye that bleeds after it’s washed out. Fuchsia is the stuck pig of the dye world. Dyes mixed with fuchsia also can bleed. Almost everything else is dye fast after it’s washed out. But there was fuchsia in the background.

original owl
owl with bleed

It bled. It bled into the owl stitching itself. I bled too. Then I figured it out. The sunset was now in the owl’s face and wings.

I’ve always argued that art has a life of it’s own. It lives past the artist. It is shown places the artist can’t go, does things an artist can’t do. And it has it’s own problems.

Sometimes life changes a piece. It’s has it’s own life.

I’ve decided that the bleeding is like sunset, coloring the stitching as light colors life. Is it what I planned. No. It’s what happened. But I suspect it’s a good thing. And it’s simply what has happened. It’s not finished yet. But it has been changed.

I considered telling no one. But I’ve always been honest about my work, warts and all. I actually think I’m pleased with it.

Spring Dyeing!

| ellenanneeddy

Years ago, I did a very bad thing. I had dyed fabric all day and I went to the pool. You don’t get pretty dye on yourself when you dye. And it all soaks through to the skin. You mix all those colors and you get brown. Mostly down your belly and your tits.

So I was walking around with nothing but a towel over my shoulder when a very kind person looked at me and said in horror, “You don’t have to put up with that.” I looked at her and said, “Actually, I do. I’m dyeing.” I did explain to the poor soul afterwards.

I’m a fabric snob. Sorry about that. I’ve been dyeing my own fabric for my projects since I was ten. It was Rit Dye and we won’t talk about the quality of the fabric, but I understood even then that someone else’s fabric isn’t mine.

Don’t get me wrong. I love prints. I can get drunk on color and add good design to it and I’m a sloppy drunk. You can tell by the cut bits of fabric on the floor.

But I want the colors and intensity of my fabric. And I really hate fabric repeats unless they help your piece along. I’m probably going to dye as long as I quilt.

With the stimulus check (Bless those congress critters!) I’m planning a dye day. I need a new batch for me, but I’ve always got space in that batch for someone who might like to order a box of fabric to choose from, or someone who wants something special dyed just for them. A batch of light source fabric in 3/4 yards? A selection of actually not boring browns. Some deep lake or pond scum fabric. All available.

I’ve also dyed cotton/hemp/bamboo/rayon clothes for people. There are those of us who should never wear white. There is inevitably a day when it is white no more. At which point, I dye it and wear it till the threads fall apart. I can do that for you too.

If you would to either make a general fabric order, or order something special for a project, let me know. I’ll dye for you.

The Miracle of Cheesecloth: Not Just for Turkey Anymore

| ellenanneeddy

I love sheers! I love the ability to have my background peak through the sheers to create the connection between background and an object.

But most sheers don’t paint or dye well. They are poly or nylon. They come in bright colors, but they have other problems. You can paint them in pastels. They don’t dye with fiber reactive dyes at all. And if you get your iron temperature wrong, they melt.

But cheesecloth does all that well! It’s all cotton, and woven loosely. And you can iron it on fry and it behaves like cotton.

You know cheesecloth. You just aren’t used to it in the sewing room. It’s an airy woven cotton people used to use to make cheese (hence the name). Or on turkies to keep the breast moist. You may have used it to make Halloween ghosts or Christmas angels.

But dyed, it can be any color in the universe. I include it in a regular dye batch and it dyes like a champ with fiber reactive dyes. And it washes out easily in your regular washer in a nylon lingerie bag.

It makes amazing leaves! The weave in the cheesecloth looks like the cells of the leaves and the stitching defines the color.

My favorite thing to do with cheesecloth is to make mushrooms. Child of the 60s that I am, they are a flora that fascinates me. And they are an excuse for eye popping color

I do make them in batches. I’ll line up a set of mushrooms on a piece of felt, using Steam a Seam 2, pull out my brightest polyester embroidery thread and stitch up batches of mushrooms at a time, that I’ll use in many different quilts. The bright colors and zigzag stitch pop the the colors to a peak intensity. Now, who doesn’t want that?

What I did differently, is I made some smaller ones for pins and patches for my friend, Sherrill Newman who owns the South Shore Market in Porter, Indiana.

I almost never make these available to people except as finished quilts. But she talked me into it. I made a small batch for her store. Some of the left overs I’ve put on sale on Etsy. They have pins backs on them, but if you wished to use them as a patch, it would be a matter of a moment to remove that with a seam ripper.

Hand dyed cheesecloth might just be the sheer you’ve been longing for. Bright, cotton, and beautifully texturized, it makes great flowers, leaves and ‘shrooms.

Everything Old Is New Again: Hunting Aging Appliances

| ellenanneeddy

The appliances that worked for Gramma still make a dyer’s life so much easier!

My new old mangle

I’ve been dyeing fabric since I was ten. I’m about to be 67. With all of that you’d imagine something must be learned.

What I’ve come to understand is that natural fiber was the default in the fifties. There really wasn’t much else. That being said, the appliances that worked then are perfect for people working with natural fibers now. The irons, washing machines and clothes lines of that time are set at the correct defaults for people working with cotton, flax, wool, bamboo and rayon.

A mangle is a rotary iron with a heat shoe. I can iron fifty yards of fabric in two hours on a good mangle. It leaves fabric perfectly pressed without needing to use the dryer.

Ironrite Mangle #85

I love my mangles, even though they’re fragile. At 50 years plus everyone’s wiring frays a little bit. Here’s a video of me singing to my mangle

I had one in the studio in Porter. We’d worried about it being in cold storage. It seems to have held up, but we found one that had been safely stored in some nice lady’s basement. Unfortunately when we got home and plugged it in on Wednesday, it made a satisfying “pmoof” noise and blasted black power on the floor. Exit mangle two.

I went home with Don, devastated. Three hours later he plopped a picture for another mangle, on ebay. It came home yesterday and worked promptly and properly. I am thrilled!

After a while you start paying attention to the old companies. Whirlpool was also Kenmore. I had two Thor Gladirons (talk about Vikings). The new one is an Ironrite.

Is there a difference?

Turns out there really is. I have a link to their add video. It features a terrifying view of women and men of the 50s. But it may be the most goof proof mangle I’ve ever seen. The shoe is in a safer place and divided in the center. They showed a woman working on blindfolded. I think it might maybe be safe with this machine

Ironrite video

Where do you find a mangle? There is a new version from Miele that is astonishing in every way. Price too, but I suspect it’s very nice.

Miele Ironing system.

At current prices, I’ll probably never know. But the old ones exist, saved from attics and basements and estate sales. Make friends with the old appliance people. People downsizing their homes. Ask around. If you are dyeing fabric you need one of these. I certainly do.

I’m hoping on exercising this new beast after doing my first dye day at the studio. Do you need some hand dyed fabric for your inspiration. Call me (219-617- 2021) or email me and we can set up hand dyed fabric just for you, mangled to perfection!

Well, I’ll Be Dyed!

| ellenanneeddy

One of the not-so-secret elements of my work has been hand dyed fabric. I’ve dyed fabric literally since I was ten. I was working with melted crayons and Rit. The result almost made my father cry when he saw the midden in the sink, but I’ve been hooked ever since.

Why? Because nothing starts better original art than original art.

With the new studio in place, I’m ready to dye. Well, almost. We still need to freshen up the wringer washer and test the new mangle. But I have a dedicated kitchen space with a drain in the floor. What more could a girl want?

I put up Three Point Landing because it’s so dependent on the fabric. It’s a one piece background with around 15 colors in it. The colors make it all glow, sky, water and waterlily. The background, just one piece of fabric, makes it all happen.

When I dye fabric for a particular piece, I usually dye three pieces for the one I’ll use. One can be backing and one can be accessory, perhaps. But all three of them will be different in lovely amazing ways. And if I’m lucky, one will be just right.

Are there commercial fabrics like this? Somewhat. Caryl Bryer Fallert does a line of fabrics that simulated hand-dye quite well. But it’s reproduced. Which means it’s not a one of a kind.

I always have some really beautiful fabric that I don’t need to keep. I sold it in classes to students, because it’s cruel to tell them they can have results like yours without giving them similar supplies.

But there are always people who come back for hand dye. It’s beautiful, The colors are vivid. it’s needle ready, starched and shrunk, and no one has a piece just like yours. Each one is unique.

My first dye run will be naturally smaller than usual. But I am taking orders for people who would like fabric. Fabric is roughly 44″ wide, mercerized cotton. It comes in yard, half yard, and yard and a half lengths. I can either send an assorted box of fabric, or hand pick for you from what you tell me you want.

The fabric has a light source in it, usually. Built in sun or moon light spots that drive the visual action of your work from the start.

Even blacks, greys and browns are vivid and exciting.

But if you ask me, I will dye what you want to your specs.

Fabric is $24 per yard. I ask that you buy at least $48 dollars worth of fabric. I do pack each box with an extra yard or two so you can pick and choose. You can send back what you don’t want. If you buy the whole box you get an extra half yard free.

I will have some extra fabric from the run, but I recommend that if you want fabric, email me or call me at 219-617-2021 and I will dye especially for your needs.

I expect to by dyeing around April 24th. Who wants fabric?