As promised, here's a peek at the process behind my hand-dyed, eco-print scarves...
To prepare for a painted textile, first the fabric is washed, and then mordanted. You can use whatever mordant you like, or none at all. Mordanting improves lightfastness and brightness of colors, so I almost always pre-mordant my fabrics.
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| In the Studio |
After mordanting, the fabric can be painted with the natural dye colors. The 'paints' are either produced from natural dye extracts, or from a concentrated dyestuff bath. I don't use any thickening agents, because I am not after imagery or pattern making. At the moment, I like for the dye to have a life of its own, in combination with the natural dye stuff that I place on top of the fabric. In the image above you can see the flowers and onion skins laying on top of the painted background.
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| Steaming the Silk |
Once the fabric is painted, it is rolled up and steamed for about an hour. The heat produced from this part of the process does effect the final colorway of the fabric. For example, above, the mustard yellow color (Madder Root), turns to coral red after reaching a certain temperature trough steaming. In the finished scarf photos below, you can see there is no more mustard color. The other important aspect to steaming the fabric is it helps fix the color into the fabric.
Once the steaming process is finished, I usually allow the fabric to remain wrapped up in the fabric for a couple of days so that the fresh dyestuff I laid on top of the fabric have a chance to extract their color. Last step is to wash out the fabric.
Below are pics of the final piece.
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| Scarf #3 View of the entire scarf. |
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| Scarf #3 View 1 |
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| Scarf #3 View 2 |
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| Scarf #3 Scarf worn as a Sarong |
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