Spring colours.

Mostly images today. I had a dyeing session yesterday using thickened Procion MX.

I decided to work out one method which I could try to stick to. I even wrote it all down. Dyeing strikes me as being very much like felt making as far as different peoples’ instructions go; they are all different, each person or book has its own pet suggestions, which are usually given as rules, and in the end, speaking personally, are completely confusing. I tried just to think it through and find my own logic.

I tried soy wax resist and general mark making. I found some syringes I had years ago and used them for some of the lines.

One tip from Ruth Issetts’ book ‘Colour on Cloth’ which is new to me is to place the dyed fabric in a low oven for five minutes, rather than batching it. Obviously not for the waxed material. I like her book and it has some excellent colour advice and exercises. She is also not too prescriptive about her methods, which she simply says have worked for her over the years. Try getting it from the library if you are in the UK; use your local library before it’s taken away.
I like the spring like colours, but I was trying for a more striking purple than the pinky shade.
If you go over to Melanie Testa's blog, see my links, you will find a list of tutorials, including her video one on making foam stamps.

This post has taken a little longer than expected; naively I had always thought of Blogger as absolutely free and marvelled at that, but I know that really there is never such a thing as a free lunch. I tried uploading photos only to be told I had reached my limit. For those of you who haven't got to that stage it doesn't cost much for a year to upload far more storage space than I will need. There is however a delay when you have paid; I was reluctant at first because I had to give my card details,I thought it could be a scam, but I checked through Blogger Help and this is how the system works. Hence a delay.Then even more delay as it took so long to upload each photo- but that was sort of OK as it gave me time to do some more pieces, and take more photos.

I have just signed up for Design Matters TV and the latest episode is about line on fabric. As I particularly like using text it was very timely.

Well a much longer post than expected, in every way. I won't knock blogger though as it has given me hours of fun.