I’m on my way home to Melbourne after a (mostly) lovely 4+ weeks in the USA. I regret being ill with the flu for a week, and for infecting my mom, but other than that it was great.
You may know that my mom is a fibre artist, specialising in weaving and dye techniques. While I was visiting she dyed some silk scarves, and I captured part of the process.
The first step was to fold and iron the scarves lengthwise. Three of the four she dyed in this batch were folded in thirds, the fourth in fourths. They were different thicknesses of silk, and the thinnest one was able to be folded more.
Then she wound them onto these PVC pipes, wrapping them with string to hold them in place. The string also acts as a barrier to the dye, creating the pattern…just like when tie-dying a t-shirt.
Then the scarves were immersed in the dye pot and left to sit at temperature for a period of time. Here she’s checking the temperature.
In this picture you can see the scarf and string, now dyed black, wound around the end of the PVC pipe.
The scarf that was folded in fourths, after washing and ironing.
One of the scarves folded in thirds.
To get a good look at her hand-dyed yarns, check out her website, Dyed Dreams. Fun note: the picture with all the skeins of yarn was taken in the backyard of the house where I grew up.
Hope you enjoyed this little look at another craft!
