I had another Bluebird dye day this week, quite literally. I’ve been taking some dye classes from Laurie Hall of Bluebird Dye Gardens. The day was beautiful with blue skies and there were bluebirds all around her studio!
Dyers coreopsis at Bluebird Dye Gardens
Before going back for more shibori and resist dyeing, I had to mordant more fabric. I had to order some supplies from MAIWA and by the time it all came together, it was the day before the dye day. So much for having time to do some shibori stitching before getting there! But I was able to get the fabric mordanted and felt quite happy that I did it successfully.
I was dyeing cotton fabric this time, so I used a tannin + alum mordant. I started with a gallnut extract tannin soak.
Gallnut extract amount for my fiber
Adding the gallnut to a big pot
My fabric soaking in the gallnut extract tannin solution
After the tannin application it is time for the mordant. I used an alum + soda ash solution. I must have done it correctly because the fabric dyed beautifully.
Alum is a safe and simple mordant
This form of alum is used in combination with soda ash
After that second soak, the fabric got spun out and hung on the line to dry.
Mordanted cellulose fabric just about ready for a dye day
The next morning after carefully marking each of these pieces of fabric with a colored thread so that I know which ones had been mordanted already, I headed off to Bluebird Dye Gardens for a day of fun.
We used three different dye baths: dyers coreopsis which gives a rich brownish color, marigold which gave us the beautiful yellows, and black hollyhock which gives the greenish purple color.
I was able to do two stitched pieces and three resist pieces.
In the photo below you see the two pieces on the top are resist with square blocks. I stuck flowers in between some of the layers and got the beautiful printed forms. The one in the top left corner is dyed in marigold, and the one top right is dyed in black hollyhock. The purple comes from hollyhock flowers and the orange flowers were sulphur cosmos.
The bottom left was coreopsis. The patterns are from shibori stitching. The one on the bottom right was a piece of fabric wrapped around a piece of PVC pipe, scrunched up, and then tied. This technique clearly needs some work, but the color was amazing. This would be a good candidate from some ecoprinting on top of what I have here.
Rebecca Mezoff’s dye day experiment results
Here are some of the pieces other people there did. The two top right were done by wrapping small rocks with the fabric using rubber bands. The effect is quite fun! Laurie was making a series of napkins which you see in the bottom right with a variety of shibori stitching.
Dye projects at Bluebird Dye Gardens
Here is the wall of most of what we did that day. There were five of us dyeing things.
Dyeing at Bluebird Dye Gardens
Mary made a gorgeous textile using shibori stitching on antique silk. It is stunning. She dyed it in coreopsis.
Mary Vozar’s silk shibori project.
It was a marvelous day with a wonderful group of people playing with stitching and dye plants. Natural dyes are tricky and also very fun! I am fascinated by the way the colors in a dye vat change as more things are dyed. A particular color might be pulled out first and then the remaining color will look quite different.
For example in these two photos below, compare the piece of mine on the left with the golden marigold dye to the piece with the circle in it on the right by Carolyn. Her piece went into the marigold dye bath quite a bit later than mine when several other things had been dyed, and the color changed from that deep gold to a much brighter yellow.
Marigold dye bath example 1, the bath was new
Marigold dye bath after several other things had been dyed in it, by Carolyn
It is always good to spend some time in a beautiful place making fun things. I learn so much from Laurie Hall and her extensive natural dye knowledge. Her love of the plants that create these colors is palpable and I look forward to more fun in her studio in the future. She does teach quite frequently here in Montezuma County, CO, so join her newsletter if you’re interested in coming to work with her!