I recently sign up for a dyeing class on Quilt University with Marjie McWilliams. This is the second class I've taken with her and it is lots of fun--and ocassionally frustrating. I know that I'm not always as precise as I should be in various aspects of my life. For instance, I'm kind of a dump measurer when it comes to cooking. Sometimes, it turns out great and others, well . . .you know. But that doesn't work when mixing dyes for precise repeatable results. I'm trying though. I'm trying. Here are my fat quarters that I dyed in Week 1. Believe it or not, one of those was supposed to be totally brown. I actually did follow the directions but Marjie said in the next lesson that the green dye tends to "run" and "travel" up the fabric so you have to turn it midway through the process to try to prevent it. So, better luck next time.
In a way, this is like deja vu all over again. For the 15 years that I was a potter, I did much the same thing with the glazes on my pots--measuring, mixing, hoping for the best. There were variables but most of them tended to occur in the kiln, not in the mix and measuring of the glazes (dyes). Sometimes it was magic and other times--for the analytically inclined--you tried to figure out what happened--not always successfully (I avoided chemistry in high school--that should tell you something.).
And these are the results of my second week's class. We used different recipes this week---with everything aimed at helping us to understand how we get the results we do. My brown (upper right hand corner) was a little better--but still with a lot of green. I was really pleased with the blues and the greens (the ones that were SUPPOSED to be green, that is). And o.k., I'm working on being more precise. At least, I can always blame the water.
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