Thursday, May 23, 2013

A Great Day in East Lansing




Thank you all so much for visiting me at my booth last weekend. 
Though the weather was hot all weekend, it was a wonderful
time to meet you and get to talk with you.

I'll be sending out emails soon about classes here at my
house, especially those that take place in my garage and
involve having fun with textile paints (jacket workshop,
printing and painting fabric) and discharge dyeing
(purposely removing color from fabric in patterns, often
using Japanese shibori/tie-dye techniques).  Please check my
CLASSES section on my website (link below) to see all the
different classes that are available.

Let me know what class you're interested in taking and what
day of the week/month you're available.  That's right---you
tell me when you want to take the class and then I work to
find other students (unless you're bringing friends with you
and the class is filled) and the right day of the week.  

Take care and look forward to seeing you, again.  Happy
Spring into Summer!

www.JenniferGouldDesigns.com



Indigo Dyeing - Part 2


The orinui pattern of "teeth or molars" that this stitch
technique produces.  I used a bright purple cotton knit,
and with the indigo blue, the purple looks pink.

One of the best (maybe THE best) part of indigo dyeing is the surprise of seeing the change in color from what you put in the vat, to the odd but lovely teal/turquoise as it oxidizes in the air, to the final lovely blue.

Adding the indigo powder to 3 gallons of water.  Then
Thiox and soda ash will be added, GENTLY stirred, then
left to sit for 30 mins. before starting the dyeing.
You start by soaking the fabric in water.  (Because water molecules are larger than dye molecules, when  put in the indigo vat, the indigo will only go where there isn't a resist, e.g., stitching, rubber bands, tightish wrinkles.)  The fabric/yarn, etc., is pulled out of the water in which it's been soaking, squeezed well, and put in the indigo vat.  If the vat has just been started, 1 or 2 seconds can be enough to produce a medium to dark color.  The more it's used, the longer time it needs to be left in the vat.

The vat can be resuscitated/revived that day if the color gets pale by adding 1 to 2 tsps. of Thiox.  (I've revived pre-reduced indigo vats 11 months after its initial used with this method!)


Lari's cotton yarn that she wrapped in
sections (ikat) to produce a varigated
striped yarn.

The white cotton yarn
goes into the vat.
The "white" yarn comes out seconds later
as a teal/turquoise, and....


The "white" yarn is oxidizing in the air and gradually
will come to its full blue color.  (Also wish it could
stay this lovely teal/turquoise....)
There are so many possibilities in using resists to create pattern.  At
the  left is a shirt that was wrapped around a PVC pipe (top wrapped
first and ending on outside is the bottom) then wrapped with string so
the most graphic part in which the indigo dye hit first is on the bottom.  The right 2 most pieces used folding and clamps to resist the dye.

Indigo Dyeing - Part 1

Our indigo dyeing day on Sat., May 4, 2013, produced an incredible
array of fabrics, yarn, clothing, roving, felted wool and more.
Jonetta's felted wool pieces.
 Julie's finished shirt on the line.
The rocks and rubber bands off Julie's shirt. You
can see the rocks bulging on the line in the pix below.

Even though we were worried all week that the weather would be rainy and cold, it ended up a gloriously sunny and warm day.  We started at 10am and two die-hards left at 5:30pm.  We had six people dyeing and two who came to watch and inspire us.  There was a lot of variety in the depth of color (2-3 seconds at the beginning gave a very dark blue; pretty much in and out fast), the type of fabric (wool felt, cotton yarn, wool roving, clothing--mostly tops, bright reds and pink fabric as well as of course white, yellows), resists (rubber banded stones, lots of tiny tiny stitching by Lou, big stitching, pole wrapped arashi shibori, even knotted pieces) or no resists, just immersion dyed.

Bethany's shirt went
from this....

...to this!

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

East Lansing Art Festival, May 18-19, 2013



Pisces Woman with
Fishy Purse
Please join me at my first outdoor show of the season:

East Lansing Art Festival
Booth #35 (on M.A.C. Ave. close to Grand River Ave.)

Downtown East Lansing, Michigan 48823
(one block from MSU campus)

Sat., May 18, 10am-6pm
Sun., May 19, 10am-5pm

www.JenniferGouldDesigns.com