So here it is, my first official post on the new website. Like?

This will be a short one--mostly pics. I am terribly delayed in getting these photos posted for you. Sorry about that--it's been busy!

Here are the results of my second session of hand-dying experimentation. I had two different types of PFD cotton and one PFD silk (very lightweight, like gossamer!) that I'd gotten from Dharma Trading Company.

I then also had some silk that I'd bought at a local sewing guild's annual rummage sale: a bolt of 30 yards for, wait for it, $15. WOOHOO! It's not as wide--I think it's something like 18" wide or thereabouts. But still, a steal. That silk was more of an ivory color to start than a true white. I only used about a fat quarter size piece of it to dye first, to see how it would work. It took the dye beautifully but I'll have to play with what colors work better on that ivory background.

Finally, I had lots of bits and pieces of some cotton lace and a crocheted doily that I'd bought at that same rummage sale. I had also bought some seersucker--no one there could tell me if it was 100% cotton or not. Apparently not--I only dyed a small corner of a piece and it didn't really take the dye at all. (Other dyes work on poly blends--the dyes I'm using only work on organic fibers.)

I also tried a variety of resists and dying techniques. You'll see examples of two pieces I used some Elmer's water soluble glue stick as a resist--worked better than I thought it would. (Couldn't find actual glue, only glue stick. Go figure.) Two other pieces were folded and secured between a pair of outlet switch plates in one case, and a pair of ethernet cable outlet plates in the other. Some pieces I folded and laid on a tray, then squirted the dye over them--you should be able to figure out which ones those are. That didn't work as well--I'll be overdying those eventually, though, and may end up with some cool results.

I'm using some of these fabrics already for a Craftsy class I'm taking, but more about that in a future blog post!