elayna's thoughts on art and life and other ramblings.

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sunday, june 24, 2007

phase 4 | processing the silk

okay onto processing the silk. when the dyes are dry, they must be heat-set since any little bit of water will make the colours run away. you can set the dyes by ironing both sides of the fabric with a hot dry iron. you need to spend about 30secs per foot per side.... for smaller pieces, not a problem. larger ones, such as these 2 panels totalling >6yds, i'll throw them into the dryer on the highest possible setting for around 120mins.

[little footnote here | before you put the silk in the dryer, you really really really need to make sure the dyes are completely dry otherwise you'll coat the inside of your dryer with colour. the next several times you put a load of wet items in that dryer... opps! colour transfers. your whites become not so very white.] =)

the 2 panels after drying throughout the night.
[panel 1 left | panel 2 right]

1) into the dryer on high for several hours......

2) into the washer with some synthrapol. [a washing agent that keeps dye from transferring to lighter areas.] the image to the left shows the colour of the water after the 3rd wash cycle. the silk needs to be washed until the water is clear. i ran these panels through 5 cycles.

3) the washed silk goes back into the dryer on the fluff cycle for around 8 mins. i remove the silk, shake it out and hang it up to complete the drying.

these past | 4 blogs | 4 phases | have shown 1 whole round from making up formulas through the silk dyeing and unto processing. i do believe i'll redye and reprocess these panels several more times until i feel they're finished..... please stay tuned for more!

12:53 pm | link

phase 3 | first layer of dyes

okay. i'm onto the fun part of this thing that i do!!!! the actual dyeing of the silk......
before beginning to dye the silk, i need to decide how the finished colours will look. that is, do i want to start dyeing with fabric that is slightly damp or completely dry? for this series i'm going with the slightly damp option... the colours will flow like a river, the borders between the different hues will be blurred and i'll achive a soft blend of colours.
i'll be dyeing my two panels slightly different ways.

1) |panel 1|
the damp silk is spread out on clean paper. i waved the panel slightly for a rippling water effect.

2) |panel 1|
i lightly sprayed on the bottom layer of colour.... a mixture of clear blues and soft sea greens with Grandma's lilac as the contrast.

3) |panel 1|
while the dyes are still wet, i spooned a colour i call atlantis onto the peaks of the folds. the dye ripples nicely down the sides of the folds.

4) |panel1|
i put the fan on this panel to speed up drying time. [if the silk is still wet, the paper beneath it will be wet as well. attempts to move the silk will result in colour transfer... fine for some processes... not for this one.] about 20mins later, the fabric is dry enough to spread flat. i rearranged the silk, this time waving it length wise.

5) |panel 1|
since the silk is dry at this point, the colour hue i spooned onto it has sharper edges.

6) |panel 1|
about 20mins later the silk has dried enough so that i could crumple the fabric tightly.

7) |panel1|
i sprayed Grandma's lilac heavily over the whole panel. i must wait until this is completely dry before the next step of processing.

i decided in the middle of dyeing to use slightly different colours and techniques on the 2 lenghts of silk. because of that. i only have a couple steps of |panel 2| recorded.....

1) |panel 2|
on this panel, i sprayed a more concentrated batch of Grandma's lilac along with an ocean blue.

2) |panel 2|
i quickly mixed up a basic turquoise and added a thickening agent to the dye. i outlined the waved fabric's edges with the thickened dye squirted out from a bottle.

3) |panel 2|
right away, another shade of blue was sprayed across entire panel. this will take the night to dry.

12:02 pm | link

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