Dyeing Workshop with
Gail Simpson; 2002
This
two day workshop, as part of the July 2002 Quilters Gathering at Mittagong,
allowed me to play with dyes. I have a
fondness for Procion – it’s easy to use, not complicated to mix up and produces
some wonderful colours on cotton fabrics.
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| Even in the pot you can see differences |
Gail
Simpson, who produces her own range of hand-dyes, bravely led us on a colour
discovery tour. We spent the days mixing
potions to produce rainbow ranges, cut vast lengths of fabric into sizes big
enough to stuff into small take-away cups, and had fun adding salt or other resist
materials to make our product more interesting.
Instead of chatting and relaxing after dinner, we spent our time
gathered around washing machines rinsing (& salting) samples to ensure the
dyes did not run. When dry, we packed them into plastic lunch-sized baggies to
take home
It
was a busy two days but we did come out of it with a large tub of our own
hand-dyed fabrics – some conveniently packed into a rainbow assortment – and a
ton of notes & samples that I later converted into a ready reference book.
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| Great ideas - just waiting to be put to use! |
