Dye and paint classes at Sisters

Dye powders used in class.

At the Sisters (OR) quilt festival last week, I took two classes: Dying with Lynn Koolish and ink painting with June Jaeger. Both were excellent. I'll start off with the dying, which was a one-day class that Lynn called an open lab, which meant we could do whatever we wanted.



Lynn in front of some of her shibori dyed pieces.

Below are some of my fabrics being dyed using the low-water immersion technique, which gives a textured outcome instead of a solid color.

 

After the fabric had been in the dye for two hours, we rinsed it in cold water and clipped it with clothespins to the grass outside the art room. In the high desert sun and heat, the fabric dried in about 10 minutes. I dyed silk organza and cotton, and the silk dried in a few minutes.

Photo above is some of my fabric, and below are some other students' colorful results.

After I got home four days later, I rinsed the fabric again in hot water and then washed it in Synthropol. Here are the results. I did a six-color double gradation from yellow to fuschia and a few other individual colors.



My hand-dyed cottons.



My hand-dyed silk organza.

Next, I had a two-day class with June Jaeger on painting on fabric with Tsukineko inks. On the way to class we saw this dramatic cloud-draped mountain. (Classes are in the Sisters High School.)

June with her village quilt, which took her three weeks to paint.

My photograph of a flower and partly-completed painting.

We brought photos from home, traced the basic shapes on a clear sheet and then projected the enlarged image onto white fabric taped to the wall. (The fabric was backed with freezer paper to stiffen it.) Then we lightly traced the design with a pencil and colored it with the inks using a dry-brush technique.

June's ink and brush sets. One brush is reserved for each ink.

Here is my painting so far, a little wrinkled from being rolled during travel. I still have to go over it with some more layers of ink to smooth it out. I don't envision painting any more large pictures, but I do want to use the inks to embellish and shade areas of my quilts. One more tool in the toolbox!

I'm linking up to Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Fridays:  http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/2015/07/bonnard-hopper-off-wall-friday.html

Have a colorful day