Am I Blue?
Tsk, another song title. And yet, it is appropriate at least a little bit. MY head is not blue, but the cloth on this wig head is several shades of sapphire, indigo, cerulean, peacock, sky and other blues.
Cotton stretch jersey was tied with rubber bands to produce a pattern of circles. A section of the finished cloth is shown below. Other folds are used to create stripes, diamonds, and swirls.
In just a few days, I’ll have blue and other colored splotches here and there in spite of nitrile gloves and the best intentions. Reduran, a hand cleaner specially made for dyers really does take a lot of it off, and a coating of clear nail polish helps protect fingers and toes a bit.
We dye outside, and it gets messy, but cleans up pretty darn well, all things considered. The fixative, (soda ash) is only applied to the textiles and ribbons that are meant to be dyed, and with care, you can keep dye splashes and spills from being permanent where you DON’T want them. We do our fixative pre-soak with the water and soda ash in a plastic wading pool. Another is used for rinsing, and there are lots of buckets involved, for dip dyeing and for carting rinsed loads to the washing machine.
For a few days this week, my back yard will be an explosion of color!Here’s a list of the SPECIFIC colors, and you will note many blues! We print the list on labels using the computer, and then attach the labels to each bottle of dye as it is mixed up. Its very hard to tell the colors apart in liquid form otherwise. We also keep color swatches in labeled plastic bags for visual reference when dyeing. Its hard sometimes to recall WHICH blue is which! Labeling helps. Keeping track helps…and will also become part of blogs, articles, and a future book on dyeing. Books require many months and even years of preparation and gathering of information and images. This one probably wont see publication until 2009—but its on the list and the work rotation.
| #03 Golden Yellow #03A Clear Yellow #05 Soft Orange #06 Deep Orange #09 Scarlet #10A Chinese Red #13 Fuchsia Red #14A Hot Pink #15 Amethyst #17 Burgundy #18A UltraViolet #19 Plum #19A Lilac #20 DustyRose #21 Teal Blue #22 Cobalt Blue |
#23 Cerulean Blue #25 Turquoise #26 Sky Blue #28A AquaMarine #30A NewEmeraldGreen #34 Rust Brown #37 Bronze #44 BetterBlack #45 Jungle Red #47 Chartreuse #50 JadeGreen #60 Lavender #62 PeacockBlue #64 Orchid #65 Raspberry |
#70 SapphireBlue #85 Seafoam #96 Lapis #97 Citrus Yellow #105 Pewter #108 CaymanIslandGreen #111 Black Cherry #112 Periwinkle #113 GoldenBrown #115 Eggplant #117 Grape #118 Yucca #119 Red Violet #312 Strongest Red #510 Basic Brown |
No, I don’t mean the song, I’m referring to the piles and bags and boxes of things I’m assembling to dye this week. We’ve got plain old white, summer white, navajo white, eggshell, offwhite, ivory, cream, even a bit of ecru. There are turned pieces of wood, bamboo beads, silk and rayon and cotton ribbons, silk chiffon and duponi yardage, silk handkerchiefs, cotton battenburg lace pieces, and cotton lace. There are circles and squares of silk stretched over wire, and there are doll bodies and fibers for hair in rayon, cotton, and wool! There are even a few more T-shirts. And that’s just MY pile; there are others coming to the Annual Dyeing Days. I’ll be taking a few pictures as we go and I’ll be sure to post so you can see the transformations.
Much of the yardage, lace ribbons, and stretched pieces were purchased from 
Of course, I like to do both–use the pre-mades and also sew, starting with my own pattern and my own dyed cloth. I’m putting together kits with the pattern, fabric, 
