Snow Dyeing

Can't believe how long it has been ! But, I am going to give this a try again if for no other reason than to document the experiments I have been doing lately.

Last weeks experiment is snow dyeing. I have been reading about it on my lists lately, and since I am not a natural snow lover, thought it might be nice to have some good use for the stuff. I also needed something for my Designworks group with the theme 'nature'.

So, I presoaked a yard of cotton fabric and let it dry. Then I left for a week. So, when I came back I soaked it in soda ash again and layed it out in the snow. I squirted dye all over using 3 colors, a mocha brown, butterscotch and a green. I piled some snow on top and squirted indigo on top. Looked pretty colorful sitting in the snow.

I left it for 2 hours in about 35 degree weather. It looked like most of the blue had absorbed into the cloth.

Then I brought it inside and nuked it for 4 minutes. I was hoping that would help the dye set, but in my heart I knew better. After washing, I lost much of the color. In the end it is an interesting piece, but I would rather not snow (we are in the middle of a big storm right now - all the weather people are SO giddy).

Pretty, but not interesting enough. I will be cutting this up to give everyone a piece. So I stamped and stenciled some leaves, dragonflies and some funny little prehistoric looking bird.

Hard to believe that all these pictures are the same fabric. In the end I still think I could have achieved simular results without standing in the snow, but it was interesting.