Fun at Folly Pt 2

Moving along, Kate and Mary had never dyed with acid dyes and it's one of my favorite things to do as you get gorgeous color. Acid dyes only work on animal fiber so wool and silk take it beautifully. They also exhaust themselves quickly so you are left with clear water and very colorful fabric at the end of the process - usually around 20 mins. 

There are many ways to fix the fabric for dyeing, but my favorite is to stuff it into a nylon stocking and secure the end. I throw it into the pot of boiling dye and when it comes out, the center part will still be white; I then throw it into pot for seconds just to add a tad more color. Doing it this way gives a lot of variation within the color. You can also go back and overdye it.

Mary rubber banded one of her pieces which was very effective. She also had great success with her wool which she uses so much in her work.

This is Kates pieces which she dyed and then overdyed.

And all the while, this is the view we have.

It doesn't get any better.

Sometimes we'll have some champagne and this time brought the bottle down - well to protect it from any little bugs wanting to swim in luxury. We covered it with a piece of stocking - A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! And it worked - No bugs in OUR bubbly!

So I always forget the apron but do have the good sense to wear old clothes.

AND NOW FOR THE YUMMIES....one of our ice dyes.

2 pieces of the same batik print dyed in 2 different ice dye color ways.

Mary had a cotton nightie she wanted to spruce up - WOW

And thanks to Kay Sorensen's who is the queen of kaleidoscope ice dyeing (check out her blog and upcoming exhibit)). Her beautiful pieces inspired us to try it. We still have more figuring to do but think we are off to a good start.

Mary did her own version which I loved...

and the flames.

Our blogger friend Robbie sent Mary some white cotton velveteen which we split into 3 pieces and ice dyed...well...YUUUMMMY! Thanks Robbie!

and results...

and more results. Having spent an extra day at Folly, we had much more fabric and as a joke we decided to weigh our fabric when we got home. Kate had close to 5 pounds, I was at 3.4 and Mary somewhere in between - that's a lot of fabric! So such great fun and I'm always so thankful to have such wonderful girlfriends as well as blogger girlfriends who never cease to amaze and inspire me...thank you.