END OF THE WEEK WILD VARIATIONS

 On first glance, I thought Linda Johansen's book Fabric Dyers Dictionary was the complete book on how to mix every possible combination.  After all, there are about a thousand different formulas in it.  You'd think that would cover it all.

This last week I've been doing the Rainbows in the beginning of her book.  I mistakenly thought the next part would be variations on mixing the 'clears' with the 'muted'.  But, she doesn't even go into that at all!  I was surprised.  

Seems to me, mixing the cool 'clears' with the warmer 'muteds' is where the wild variations would come into play.  I think they became even more intriguing to me since they weren't in her book.  I've had a lot of experience with this, mixing my acrylic paints.  I had definite likes and dislikes in that regard.

I first had to devise a plan, which colors to mix with which colors.  I even made a page in Excel and printed them out with numbers and yellow highlighting and everything, to keep it straight in my head.

Here's what I got:

The Yellows to the Reds:

Yellows to Reds variations

Golden Yellow (warm) to Fuchsia (cool)

Lemon Yellow (cool) to Chinese Red (warm)

The Red to Blue Variations:

Chinese Red (warm) to Turquoise (cool)

Fuchsia (cool) to Cobalt (warm)

And then after all my planning and organizing I forgot one of the green variations.  I'll get to it next week.  But here is the one I did do:

Turquoise (cool) to Golden Yellow (warm)

LEARNING TO DYE FABRICS - DAY 4

Today is the much anticipated Muted Colors Rainbow Light.

The same colors as yesterday, but in a lighter value.

I'm having a lot of fun with this, can you tell?

And here are the two sets of Muted Colors Rainbow, the light and the dark:

LEARNING TO DYE FABRIC - DAY 3

My favorites, the so-called muted colors, we are on to them today.

I will be using Golden Yellow, Chinese Red and Cobalt.

Here we go:

LEARNING TO DYE - DAY 2

Today is the lighter version of the Clear Rainbow.

I didn't mention it yesterday, I'm using Lemon Yellow, Fuchsia and Turquoise.

Here they are in the baggies where they'll spend the night.

Voila, the light Clear Rainbow:

And, here are yesterday's darks with today's lights.  Same colors, different values.

LEARNING TO DYE FABRIC - DAY 1

With Linda Johansen's fabulous book Fabric Dyer's Dictionary in hand, I set out to learn to dye.  I am beginning with the Rainbows at the beginning of the book.  They didn't seem interesting, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They are great fun!

First I armed myself with the basics:

a bolt of PDF fabric, 32 yards to be exact, yikes.

the dyes, a clear and a muted of each basic color, yellow red and blue :

Lemon Yellow

Golden Yellow

Fuchsia

Chinese Red

Turquoise

Cobalt

I made enough dye to last me the week, I put them in squirt containers and will keep them in the refrigerator in the studio.

I pre-washed the fabric and tore it into fat quarters.

Using a pigma pen I marked each piece with the corresponding color number from Linda's book, hoping the numbers will survive the process (which they did).

So, I measured the required amounts into the little baggies, put the fabric in, massaged it and put the little baggies into a plastic box, where they will spend the night in their dye bath.  

Oops, I think I must have been tired and or bored towards the end, the last two fabrics came out the same.  I will have to re-do the 12th one tomorrow. Notice the two on the left, don't they look strikingly the same!

Here's the Clear Rainbow after I got the last fabric done correctly:

Aren't they gorgeous!