Jan 13 2009
Dyeing to Inspire
Thanks to the Online Weavers, Spinners and Dyers Guild I’ve been ‘re-activated’ to dye more. The ‘Easy Ikat and Warp Painting’ Workshop that I ran in November gave me lots of ideas and you can see some of the inspiring results of the participants’ efforts here. There are so many different ways with colour and one weaver used natural dyes. I tried to encourage all weavers to just ‘have a go’ because that is how I got started. If I have a little success with something I tend to try it again….otherwise, I’m a bit deflated and need real encouragement.
In the top right photo here you can see a digression from the simplest ikat approach in dyeing using randon ties along the warp length. I’ve still done this but instead of tying all white yarn I’ve tied a one dark (black) one light (white) arrangement. As the textile will have a warp emphasis the one dark, one light warp order will produce horizontal stripes in plain weave. After untying the ikat ties I was surprised at the amount of dye that seeped through on this occasion but the result is beautifully subtle. Some of the workshop participants noticed this in their dyeing too but perhaps I’ve overlooked it until now. I’ll see what eventuates in the weave up.
Hi,
What fibre did you use for the warp?
Hi Rachel, the warp and weft is 100% bamboo! A lovely fibre to work with.
Wow!!! I’m so glad you are dyeing again! Your colors are fabulous!!! I’ve been inspired;)
I’m so glad the workshop inspired you this way! I had a similar experience with some of my ikat ties, but I think they weren’t snug enough. The result was subtle dark green areas instead of white. It was a good learning experience.
In my recent trip I had to read some dye instructions in English to explain it to Mom. It was so strange because she knows dyeing very well, but has difficulties when it’s written in English, while I can read the words but have no idea what I was talking about!!
Now that I am back, I can finally start thinking about the bookmark warp!! Yay!!!