One very wet, very happy boy

Jackson - yep, he owns me...

Josiah the heart-stealer

Tjap time

Today, I went to an Austin store I had not discovered yet: Silk Road Fabrics.  Lovely fabrics - I bought two beautiful pieces of silk to make up for an upcoming wedding in San Diego.  Two good things came of the visit besides the fabric; They had a basket of overdyed silk brocade pieces, plus the original - that got my mind going! - and they had a basket of wooden tjaps, or stamps for dyeing, made in India and doubtless used there for MANY years.  I have always wanted to try using them, so I bought a couple to try out.  Productive outing, PLUS a stop at the Austin Public Library to check out the most amazing book:  The Worldwide History of Dress.  Check it out on Amazon!  (http://www.amazon.com/Worldwide-History-Dress-Patricia-Anawalt/dp/0500513635/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274911384&sr=8-1)

Windy Monday!

Why oh why is it that whenever I set up to dye on the back porch the wind absolutely HAS to start blowing?  It was a duel to the death between me and the plastic wrap every time I wanted to seal off another layer of fabric to batch.  As I have to leave it for 24 hours before rinsing, and as it needs to stay at least somewhat moist during that time, I make a stack of layers - a cut-open black trash bag on the bottom, and between each layer of fabric, sheets of plastic wrap.  As you can imagine, the plastic wrap continually tried to wrap around ME instead of laying politely on the wet fabric.  I finally resorted to bringing out lots of canned goods from the pantry to hold down the stack.  Hmmmm - I only need two more hands.  Or four.

Today I used yellow, brilliant blue, lilac, turquoise and kelly green.  I hand-painted some t-shirts to play around with cutting them up to re-fashion into different shirts, and then switched to my new linen and rayon blend...  on that yardage I poured the dyes onto the folded material - one was wrapped flat and one loosely hand-pleated before wrapping.  So I have a bag of linen and a stack of t-shirt cotton.  Can't wait for the big rinse tomorrow.  I'll post pictures and start deciding whether I like the result and am ready to start sewing, or whether to do a new layer of surface treatment.  Stay tuned!

Color has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it. I know that it has hold of me forever... Color and I are one. I am a painter.   Paul Klee

Did I forget?

Yikes..  I forgot to carefully press the Publish button and make this post come to life.  OK - Here is the second shirt I made:  cotton, very comfortable but it would have been lots more vibrant in rayon or silk.  This one was handpainted in front and back panels, carefully wrapped in plastic wrap and batched overnight.
Rinsing out is the best part.

All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.
Marc Chagall 

I have been having a great time working inside my head - but it is time to actually dye more fabric.  In the morning I am going to work with shades of violet - blue - fuschia.  I am going to follow the low water immersion dyeing process from paulaburch.net on rayon twill.  I have looked at all kinds of postings about the process, but her directions are the most extensive.  Here are pics of the latest shirts that are already completed.  This series of tester shirts has been a blast to make, and I love having lots of new t-shirts.

This vest is rayon, has great drape and fantastic deep color.  Here is the back:

Looks shapeless on the hangar, but hangs really well on me.  

And here is the last, a Kona cotton shirt that I vat dyed and then discharged.  The top panel is hand painted, the center and lower panels are hand painted and tied.  I love working with the discharge.

But now all I can think of is getting to work early in the morning.  More pics soon!