Dye Happy, Session 4

Friday was Session 4 of my Dye Happy class at Wabi Sabi. It is always gratifying to see the results of the previous class. While we do various dyeing processes in class, students usually have to let them batch and wash out at home.

Several students decided to dye some silk-rayon velvet scarves using the Bomaki Shibori method.

Marion's colours are so lovely.

Sue and her rainbow scarves.

Heather and her rainbow scarves.

Barb tried the rainbow method on cotton.

Nancy's folded fabric.

Nancy's stitch resist experiment.

Marion's soft-toned two colour run.

This is Heather's beautiful stash so far.

Just out of the immersion dye bath, Sue and her pole-wrapped Arashi Shibori.

Friday's topic was Soy Wax Batik. You can see the wax melting in an electric frying pan here, and the many batiking tools we tried. The wax forms a resist that does not allow the dye to penetrate.

Sylvia sent a photo of her soy wax resist fabrics after washing out. 

Last Week's Workshops

Friday I taught Session 3 of my Dye Happy class at Wabi Sabi. The topic of the day was Shibori, so students learned how to wrap a pole and prepare an immersion dye bath. In addition, we continued with some bomaki shibori. Students brought Show and Tell from the previous class, or sent photos after the class.

These are Sylvia's stunning navy and white shibori pieces.

Marion's two colour run (using the opposites of green and violet).

Marion's tray dyeing.

Sue's folded and clamped piece (looks like eggs doesn't it?).

Oh wow, Sue's tray dyed piece!

Sue's parfaits and value gradations.

Nancy's bound bean piece.

Nancy's folded and clamped work. I adore blue and white!

Nancy's flour paste resists.

Chris' value gradation.

Barb's parfaits:

I put together a colour chart of the dyes I most frequently use. All the brightly coloured swatches on this chart make me very happy :-)

Barb focusing on painting a bomaki shibori piece.

Saturday I taught right in my own community, for the Common Thread Quilt Guild. A bright and beautiful day in a nice spacious community centre.

The topic was Liberated Radial Piecing. That seems to be popular lately.

This piece by Johanna.

This one by Laura.

Sometimes I get so engrossed in the teaching experience that I forget to take many photos!

Beautiful Shibori Scarves

Almost everyone in my "Dye Happy" class at Cherry Tree Quilts in Summerland, BC tried dyeing a silk/rayon velvet scarf using a shibori method. Here are the beautiful results!

Tracy:

Diana:

Marilyn:

Denise:

Joan:

Alison:

Eileen:

Barb:

Timmy-Jeanne:

Folded, Clamped, Bound, Wrapped & Tied!

My second class at Cherry Tree Quilts in Summerland, British Columbia, Canada, was my five-day "Dye Happy class". I am going to blog about the class over several posts. This first one contains many inspirational photos, of folded, clamped, bound, wrapped and tied fabrics.

Eileen's triangle fold, clamped with metal washer.

Timmy-Jeanne did bound black-eyed peas, but then added two extra circles of ties.

Instead of our usual black-eyed peas, Barb bound some golf balls for some really big circles!

Barb and her folded fabric.

Timmy-Jeanne worked in blues, giving a lot of her work an almost indigo-look.  Folded and clamped with hinges.

Mandala fold.

Triangle fold with hinges.

Unfortunately I can't remember whose pieces these are. Left one folded, right one bound black-eyed peas.

Tracy's spiral.

Tracy's folded fabric.

Triangle fold with clothespins.

Alison's bound marbles.

Triangle fold.

Diagonal fold, I think by Joan.

Alison's bound black-eyed peas. Love the non-uniformity.

The ladies have the blues! These are all wrapped on a pole and immersion dyed shibori.

Sue's wrapped stones has a very organic look.

More folded fabric.

Folded on the diagonal.

Barb's triangle fold with washers and clamps.

Pole-wrapped.

The view from outside. Fabrics dried quickly in the Okanagan climate.

Joan and her T-Shirt

Joan and her jersey knit fabric.

I hope you enjoyed the inspiration. I apologize if I can't always remember remember exactly whose fabric was whose. Feel free to write me and let me know and I'll be happy to give credit. 

More inspiration from "Dye Happy" coming soon.