I had to do something with myself so I tried my hand at another silk poncho since my first one was given away to a worthy subject. You can see the process of dyeing poncho #1 in a posting below this.
Step one: lay it out on my longest table. If you are a short person, this poncho could be a wedding dress with a sizable train.
Started dyeing a deep blue on the wide end which will hang down my back. The silk is NOT pre-soaked. I wanted as little dye movement as possible at first with all blending and bleeding to happen after the first color was applied.
Next step was to start applying green dye to the part that will wrap around the front.
Next, start blending with clear chemical water so that the two colors will meet in the middle of the back.
I allowed the dyes to sit for about 45 minutes in the dye studio and then I moved the wet silk out to the line to dry and allow gravity to have its way with the colors for the final part of the dyeing process. It is hot and dry today- upper 90s with humidity about 15 % so it dried quite quickly but the time spent in the studio was enough to get good color depth. The last 15 minutes or so on the line are enough to get even more blending.
This is a pretty good shot of the front. Deep sea greens with sapphire blue peeking from behind. All in all, this was fun and easy and a great way to spend my afternoon.
Here is the back. It is hard to get accurate depth of color shots but this is a retake outside and it came out better than the shots I had posted yesterday.
I really do love this color combination. This shot came out good.It's wonderful to be feeling better. I do need to take it slowly and rest and allow my energy to return but in the mean time, I keep thinking of new things I want to try with the rizome paste and silk sizing. Fun stuff.
What are YOU working on these days?
Keep dyeing!
