ELAINE QUEHL, Quilt Artist, Teacher, Dyer, Designer
Monday, January 17, 2011
A Comparison of Low Water Immersion and Snow Dyeing
Low water immersion on left, snow dye on right.
With all the talk of snow dyeing I've been hearing lately, I decided it was finally time for me to run a little experiment to see the difference between snow dyeing and low-water immersion dyeing. So, I mixed up 6 cups of dye solution in 6 colours (terracotta, butterscotch, golden yellow, hot pink, chino brown, and a mix of half olive green and half dark green) to dye 6 meters of fabric. I used a full concentration of 1 Tb of dye powder per cup of water per meter of fabric. Yes I use urea. In all of the photos above, the fabric on the left was dyed using my usual low water immersion method while the fabric on the right was dyed using the snow dye method. For the snow dyes, I soaked dry fabric in soda ash solution for 10 minutes, wrung it out and scrunched a meter of fabric into the bottom of each container, then piled about 4 inches of snow on top. Several colours of dye (totalling about one cup of dye solution for each meter) were then poured across the snow. For the low water immersion fabrics, I started with wet fabric, poured the dyes over, and then poured a cup of soda ash solution over each. Here they are batching in my dungeon, er I mean basement.
My conclusion? I was surprised to find that the intensity of colour on the snow dyes was pretty much close to that of the low water immersion dyed fabric. Why am I surprised? Because all the experts will say that warmth is required for good colour, that batching should take place in a room that is at least 68 degrees in temperature. Well, my basement was 64 degrees that day, and even with the cold snow on top, the colour is still good. On the negative side, snow dyeing is more work. I have to fill a pail of snow and haul it down to my basement. The other down side (to me, and this will depend on your taste), is that there is less control over the finished product, such that more white spots result. At least with low water immersion, I can manipulate the fabric a bit to ensure all areas have dye on them, whereas with snow dyeing there is much more left to chance. The dye is poured across the snow, with little control in where it ends up. And I thought low water immersion was serendipitous! I think the white wouldn't bother me so much if the colour was softer, but it really stands out in pieces with very intense colour.
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Elaine, thanks for dyeing and photographing and sharing this experiment. I too have wondered about the dyes working in the snow. I guess it just goes to show that all that hoopla about 70 degrees may just be that, eh?! I do like the drama the snow dyes can do vs. LWI. I don't mind some lighter areas.
ReplyDeleteI rarely dye. That snow dying sounded like too much work to me too. Thanks for the pics. Don't know what 'low immersion' is, but I do like the outcome better.
ReplyDeleteI think they both turned out beautifully. I also believe the white in the snow dyes make it glow!!
ReplyDeleteAll dyeing is a lot of work, but snow dyeing is even more work than low water immersion. Low water immersion is what most of the hand-dyers in the quilt and fibre world are doing. It is just what it says it is ... low water. Little water is used and the fabric is scrunched into a small container, thus the mottled patterning. Immersion dyeing, on the other hand, is what is used to dye a garment a solid colour (lots of water, agitation and salt), but it is also used for some shibori methods.
ReplyDeleteIm a dye-a-holic and love the range of fabrics I can create to use in my work. The mottled patterning of hand-dyes mimics the dappled light in nature, so I find it works well for my nature quilts.
I love the areas of light in the snow dyed fabrics. It gives them "life." I also LOVE the wonderful surprises that I get when snow dyeing. I do have to agree, though, that it is a whole lot of work. It was very interesting to see the two methods side by side.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the experiment, but having just done a bit myself, I think that you would have achieved a different patterning if you had raised the snow and fabric off the bottom of the container. I have lovely rounded patterns on mine, which are quite different from the lwi. And different from the snow dye session at our retreat where we left the bins out overnight so we could take them home the next day. That too has sharper imaging.
ReplyDeleteI am late to the party, just doing the same comparison myself. I found the blue/turquoise dye molecules actually do need a warmer dye bath to strike, neither did well in the snow dye environment.
ReplyDeleteI put my fabric on screens so they do not sit in the dye water. It makes a big difference.
I did snow dyeing in February, I loved it and the results were fantastic. I just sprinkled the powder on, using salt shakers for better control of the amount. no white spots. I have been doing ice dyeing this summer again with amazing results , even simpler tha the snow , no hauling , just a bag of ice cubes and the sprinkled dry Procion powder. I love it, very addictive and the colours are amazing
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting Lulu. I saw the ice dyeing article in a recent Quilting Arts magazine and thought I must try it sometime. The big thing for me is that the low-water immersion dyed fabric works really really well in nature quilts (which I do) so I like to focus on it. I'd be curious to see some work that uses the speckled look of the ice cube dyed fabric. Have you used any of it in your work? Sure would be nice not to have to mix up the dye solutions ;-)
ReplyDeleteElaine
very cool- no pun intended- I love the snow dying results and never tried it. Maybe now with all this snow!
ReplyDelete