Dyed Fabric & Used Fabric Softeners

Here are pictures of some of the dyes I did yesterday using used fabric softeners, white cotton and Jacquards dyes. Going from L to R: dark red and blue on dampened cotton. It is actually much richer in color than the photo. The middle one is used fabric softener sheet. The color is deliberately delicate and will be used against a darker color background. The last one in this row is colors dripped {the blues and purples} and stamped with a bit of sponge{yellow} on dampened cotton.

The bottom row, L to R: Used fabric softener sheet in darker colors which will be used against a light background. The next one is color on very wet cotton. Then, when it was dry, I dragged a little red dye on a paintbrush over it. I quite like this effect and will try some orange on it, I think.

The bigger rectangle on the right is a new technique I am trying. I first cut a couple of already-dyed piece of cotton into strips and then wove them. I didn’t glue these down very well since this was just a try-it-out sheet. I am thinking that this technique will work best with strips of paper. This woven rectangle is  mounted on a piece of scrap watercolor paper. All the other strips lying around are cotton scraps I experimented with. The pale one lying above the rectangle was made by dying the cotton, letting it dry and then drawing the lines and flowers with dye pens. The three green and yellow scraps on the right were colored with ordinary acrylic paint on slightly-dampened cotton. They dried rather stiff but that might make an easy to-weave design. Since the ones colored with dye have a very soft hand, they were tricky to weave over and under each other.

 "We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." – Booker T. Washington.

"We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change." — Katherine Hepburn