Wednesday 2 July 2008

More rusting

I've been playing with the ferrous sulphate again. I've been dyeing an assortment of threads, cotton velvet, scrim and turban cotton.

 


I've also been experimenting with some of the fabrics I dyed last week, but pictures of those will come later.

 


I've been trying to find a good contrast to these rusty orange shades, and it'a interesting to see how poorly these hand-dyed fabrics, coloured with natural dyes, go with their commercial cousins. However,
Magie Relph sells plain cotton which is indigo dyed, so I invested in a metre of this and it goes really well. I think the colours are too subtle to capture with my photography in terms of what goes and what doesn't but I might try a photo shoot on a non-raining day to see if I can demonstrate what I mean regarding natural hand-dyed vs commercially printed fabrics. Meanwhile, the cloths are busy oxidising on the line prior to a dip in soda solution, and they can do this in the rain as well as the dry.

My son is intrigued by these fabrics. His comment was that they look dirty, used and worn. I told him that was intentional, which has given him food for thought. He can sort of see the point of this. I'll be curious to see what he thinks of what I make with them, in due course.

6 comments:

Sandy said...

Nice rusting. I love that color. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Pascale said...

Very nice dying, you are more adventurous than me. In fact I am not far, in Swindon, but thanks for offering to order me more needles, and for visiting my blog.

verobirdie said...

Sue, thank you for visiting my blog!
I see you are busy too!
How come your son is wondering? Hasn't he bought a pair of jeans all worn out, with holes, and paid a lot to have them? :-) You are just creating the same :-)

Sara lechner said...

you're doing the most beautiful rusting! I did once putting cotton fabric with earth, water and iron things in a nylon bad and leaving it there for a month. you must imagine what I found as I opened it! it was full with earth worms that had left bitten traces everywhere! (I was very fond of this!).
I answer your question here because I don't find your email address in your blog. I really couldn't decide which Babylock I buy... I would buy both but this is a silly answer I guess!! wit 7 needles you can do better detail work, with 12 you can do the surfaces much faster... You can take needles out of the one with 12 but this isn't something I would do very often because it's cumbersome!! You should ask if you can buy the needle head with the other plate. I will speak with Babylock and suggest they sell these parts too if you already have a machine! if many people ask for them they should do it...

Digitalgran said...

Lovely dyed and rusted fabrics Sue, like your son I can't wait to see what you make with this intentionally old looking fabric :)

solange said...

That is a great blog. Very beautiful work.