Fiber Junkies - Thickened Dyes

At our most recent meeting of FJ, we decided to work with thickened procion mx dyes....something we hadn't done in a long time. Denny showed us some examples of fabric created with dyes.

A lover of spider webs, Denny showed us a good example of how well you can manipulate dyes into patterns.

As always, Denny brought "half of her studio" supplies to share with the group. She thinks of everything...leaves no stone unturned. She also made handouts of some of the techniques...What would we do without her!

Denny's fabric is always so rich with layering of techniques and color so I decided to document her process....She brought thickened and unthickened dyes in squirt and spray bottles. First step was above right where she squirted thickened dyes in several colors on surface of a piece of muslin treated with soda ash. She then flipped it over and used unthickened dyes to spray the back of the piece. Even though the dyes will permeate the fabric, the back will look very different from the front when done.

Next, on the wrong side, she used a roller to smush the dyes around, then squirted more thickened dyes.

Oh well...would you lookie here....one of those old electric burners...what to do with it. Denny made it into a stamping tool just to give it a little more visual texture.

On left above, another sponge roller...then more dye....

then bubble wrap to blot and squish some more. No one step has a tremendous impact but so many steps used consecutively add up to a very rich looking piece of fabric.

Time to roll up in newsprint and put in a steam bath. These can also be batched...but steaming them cuts the time to process and everyone goes home with non-gooky fabric.

Some of mine...following Denny's process...

Here I used a scraper to create fine lines...

and here a sponge from a home improvement store.

I love silk and procion dyes work well on it so I tried some China silk.

When our fabrics were done, they were placed into a bucket of warm sudsy water. Here is one of Denny's....

Here is a piece of deconstructive screen printed fabric I wasn't thrilled with so painted over it.

I was at the same table as Denny so it seems all my pics were of hers or mine....not sure about this one but think it's Denny's.....Everyone was doing some great stuff...and I apologize for not getting more pictures of the group...next time promise to highlight everyone's work...In the meantime, we have to wait until next month when we'll bring our fabric back for show and tell...
I did get one from Susan that is her colors and I love the results....Sorry to make you wait so long but I assure you, the results will be yummy!