Hand Dyed Fabric (or how to make hippy spew with low immersion dying and a helpful dog))

Hi everyone!

Have finally (finally!) got around to dying the fabric that's been soaking in soda ash in a plastic tub on top of the dishwasher for (ahem) about 3 months. :)

I had some old dyestock already made up in squeeze bottles left over from even before then and wanted to see if it would work. I've heard that it lasts forever, that it lasts for a couple of weeks, that you should keep it in the fridge, that temperature doesn't matter and a dozen other things. I hadn't heard about the cold storage before storing the squeeze bottles behind the dishwasher with all my other dye equipment.

When this place was built the cabinet maker in the kitchen must have been having a hard day - as the bottom of the bench hole left for the dishwasher is fine... but the top is about 2mm too narrow. The upshot of this is that I have extra space to store my dye things but it's in an area where it's going to get warm from the heat of the dishwasher in front of it.

I made two pieces, I'm very happy with the first. The old premixed dye did work but the colour is subtler then it was 3 months ago. I figure this piece will make a nice sky:

Coco, as always was very helpful during shooting the pics. She thinks that if you are kneeling on the ground then obviously you're there to pat her. (Usually of course she is right!)

The second piece on the other hand was rather different then what I had in mind.... I seem to have created hippy spew print:

The green in this piece is new dye I mixed with bright green and bright yellow, so that dye is a lot stronger than the blue. I dyed both of these by wringing out the extra soda ash and squishing the fabric into the bottom of a plastic lidded container. I then squirted the pre-mixed dye directly onto parts of the fabric, put the lid on the containers and left it for 3 days for no other reason than i've been busy :)

-Neroli Henderson