Dyeing – Page 27 – Elliebelly Knit & Dye Works

Home again, home again

Posted on October 28, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

I got home from my trip last night, with many thanks to all of you who left wooly and arty comments here and linked me to your photos and blogs. It has been truly wonderful to read through everything and pour over all of your photos and stories. When the kids get home from their Halloween candy-buying trip with daddy, we will draw a name and package up the yarn to send to one of you — I wish I had enough to send a skein to everyone who took the time to brighten my week (and hopefully yours too).

In the meantime, I am dyeing up some yarn for my swap partner from Wooly Wonders. I have some lovely merino and it is in the pot right now with some colors that have been lovingly mixed in hopes that she will really enjoy this yarn!

When I got home, the first thing I saw was a package the husband had left out for me. I’m not sure how he knew it was the special package I was waiting for, but it was from Carla, who was very very nice and sent me this beautiful piece. I saw it on her blog and shamelessly asked if I could have it for my office. It’s going to be a very treasured piece of art in my life, both because it is perfect for what I do and also because Carla is one of the nicest people I know — she is incredibly encouraging to new artists and one of the warmest, friendliest people I know. Her Collage Cats yahoogroup is one of the best places for mixed media artists to hang out online.

How cool is that?

A little bit of this….and a little bit of that.

Posted on October 21, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

I was excited to finally get a little bit of studio time this morning while my angel baby played with a friend. The weather here is gorgeous, so I couldn’t stay in for long, but I worked on my altered cabinet card for Lou McCulloch’s box of altered women and I also made some art for a trade with the uber-wonderful Carla Naron (if you don’t read her blog, you should). This was the first cabinet card I had done in a long time, but the other altered dames inside of the cool wooden box Lou decorated for this round robin were an invitation to whimsy.

On the back it reads "Eunice got stuck looking after all their important ideas. It wasn’t really fair, but then so much of what happened to them wasn’t."

I couldn’t spend much more time indoors, it was so pretty. So I took some bamboo velour outdoors to dye. This was a combination of dip-dye and low water immersion with a loosely scrunched fabric through two different dye baths, and it seemed to take forever with three yards of it to do, but the weather was so nice it didn’t matter. I’m torn between using this to make play clothes for the kids and a sort of big, loose, blue fish style tunic for me.

the fabric is way prettier than the photo which looks sort of washed out. I poured soda ash solution over the fabric almost immediately during the orchid dye bath, to get the dye to stretch out and give a nice halo effect over the lavender-blue beneath it.

Finally I have to show you my little angel baby who is so in love with his patchy panel pants from Dancing Bears that he refused to take them off. Just flat out refused. He really loves them.

Hermione’s Cashmere

Posted on October 16, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

Hermione really, really likes it when she sees the dye pots come out. She like to watch and even help. Wool is her friend.

I dyed up some cashmere for a baby sweater for a friend and she helped.

She was very pleased with the results too!

This is the softest yarn I have ever dyed and I am in love with it! I have two extra skeins, that I’m going to offer for sale at Midday Faire Tuesday at noon.

And, if you are looking for my article on Crackle Dye on Paula Burch’s fabulous fabric dyeing website, it can be found here. I’ve put a permanent link on the top right hand of the blog for easy reference.

Crackle Dye

Posted on October 15, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

I’m so excited! Over the years that I have been involved in fabric dyeing, I have continuously experimented with and refined a low immersion process I call "Crackle Dye" (a trademark for the process that I use in connection with my business, Elliebelly) that creates a lovely multi-colored effect with rich veining on fabric.

Although it is a time consuming process that takes the fabric through multiple dye baths and color mixes, I have always found the results to be well worth it, and I guess a lot of other people have too, because I get a lot of email requests for tips on how to achieve this effect.

I have been working on an article that takes you through the steps and offers some pictures of this process. It is finally complete and I’m incredibly excited because my Crackle Dye process is now available on Paula Burch’s (yes, THE Paula Burch, the one and only queen of dyeing who has THE website for directions and information on fabric dyeing) website. When I was first learning how to dye, I consulted Paula’s website constantly, learned from her expertise on the dyer’s list, and have always found her advice to be the best there is over the years. I still visit it as my first stop whenever I have a question. I’m stunningly happy, both that she thought my process was valuable enough to be included on her website and to have the opportunity to give back to the community of dyers.

so, go and get it here. This is a free gift from me to all of my favorite people, artists and fabric dyers.

Here is an example of my Crackle Dye.

Artless Saturday

Posted on October 14, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

The title says it all. Artless Saturday. Not a very happy prospect, is it?

My job today is to write an epistle on post-Booker sentencing law (trust me, you don’t want to go there), in an effort to match wits with my oldest child’s Godfather (who really needs to return to regular blogging). It’s sort of an off match because the law is on my side, but the brains are on his. Nonetheless, I think the court I practice in front of would not be particularly impressed by a collaged brief cover, thus, after this little foray into creativity is over, its back to the cold hard facts for me today, I’m afraid.

The day didn’t start out auspiciously, either. This sweet little angel had a 4:00 a.m. trip to the emergency room with asthma we couldn’t overcome at home.

Two 45 minute Albuterol treatments later, plus oral steroids, they cut us loose. Nonetheless, he saw it as a pleasure trip for the purpose of making new friends. After charming the nurses by telling them he was "three and three-quarters" old, he proceeded to recite Aragorn’s speech to his men before the evil legions of Mordor from Lord of the Rings ("Men of the West — I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me"). He then bounced off the walls from the Albuterol, ate ice cream, and generally enjoyed himself immensely while all the dope kicked in. He is now happily napping while mom tries to carry on despite the all nighter.

The kittens have gained almost a pound since they arrived and continue to rule the house. Ellie made a little wand for them to play with this morning, cleverly tying rosemary and catnip onto a long piece of bamboo, with a bit of floral decoration. When she tired of the game, they dragged the huge wand around and looked so sweet that all she could do was laugh and play with them some more.

It’s back to work for me. I do have a little bit of excitement in progress with some dyeing, so I hope that little tease will be enough to get you to come back mid-week. I promise it will be worth the wait!

Columbus Day

Posted on October 9, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

Columbus Day is a BIG holiday in my house. We like Columbus as much as the next guy, but I have to confess, it’s a little bit more personal. Our anniversary falls on the long weekend (we’re both government employees, so we both get the Monday holiday) and it’s fun to always have a three day weekend to celebrate!

This year, we aren’t doing a lot of celebrating, having already broken the bank with our anniversary gift to each other, our sweet Maine Coon Cat Harry. Harry and his sister Hermione had a little trip to the vet for shots this morning, so they are happilly snoozing away. They took up most of the morning. The rest of the day was spent shuffling the four littles from school to tutoring to art, etc etc etc. So it’s been your average day, although I do have a huge pot of Osso Bucco in the oven, and it smells tantalizing!

I did have time for a little bit of knitting/art/dyeing today. First off, I don’t think I have shown y’all the wide rib scarf I’m working on in Rowan’s Big Wool. The colors are delicious — brown and darker brown, and although I was afraid the yarn might be a bit too scratchy for a scarf, it is actually fabulous and two of the kids are fighting over it already. It’s a wide rib — 4×4 with a garter stitch border, so it has been easy enough for rush hour knitting in the car but the result is quite beautiful.

I’ve also been dyeing some silk. I have a hobbit on my hands for Halloween, but he eschews the store bought costume I thought I was so clever to purchase in advance. Needless to say, I will be making a cape and hoping I can put something together.

Although it doesn’t look like much at this point, once it is all wrapped on a pole and steamed, it will be quite lovely. Parts of the colors remind me of the purpley-green-browns at the heart of an artichoke.

I’ve also been dyeing yarn today. I wanted something that had red, white, and blue colors, without exactly mimicing the colors in the flag, to do felted purses for some friends with loved ones in Iraq who need something special for Veteran’s Day. I think this yarn should work perfectly.

And finally, I devoted a little bit of time to painting some children’s clothing for my E-Store. I wanted to do some little elves and fairies. Once they’re dry, I’m going to go back on the ones sized for children beyond the age of constant self-endangerment and add a little bit of beadwork.

So, that’s my day. The husband (now of 18 years) is off picking up our girly-girl from art classes, which means I need to go pop into the kitchen and make salad (arugula with shaved parmesan and my homemade mustard-vinagrette) and brussel sprouts (we roast them and they are absolutely to die for).

A Few Quick Things

Posted on September 28, 2006 by Joyce Makes Art

For those of you who saw a strange post full of random letters a bit earlier, that post was written compliments of Miss Hermione, but has now been deleted in favor of this one, which I was distracted from writing by the awakening wee boy.

First off, I am so happy that I am finally back to working on Ellie’s Oh Jan dress that I have to show you my progress! I’m onto the second color and trying to take the eyelet panels on faith as they sort of look like well, um, holes right now.

I’ve also been dyeing yarn (yes, I know this comes as a surprise). This is my most recent silk yarn — it is as nice and soft as the Alchemy Silk Yarn my Mom got me for my birthday, but now, I can dye it in any color I want! I think this yarn has fabulous potential double stranded with alpaca for scarves, but my real plan is to use it for the Oh Jan dress for my adorable three month old niece (before she gets much bigger.)

And finally, a tiny bit of art. I’ve been working on some odds and ends in my studio, and also finishing up my pieces for my partners in the Art Partners swap, Joanne and Angie (which I don’t want to post as they are still in the mail and I hate to ruin surprises). One of the things I’ve been attracted to are little boxes. This one uses the same angel image that I used on my fabric book pieces. I’m thinking about making some of these sweet little boxes as holiday presents for my family (I hope none of them are reading this!)