Practice - Ice Dye

Found - one VERY OLD shoebox of Procion dye powders. It took me a while to find them, in the basement, but I knew they were around somewhere, just not the first 12 places I looked. We are going to try ice dyeing this weekend at Vera's and she said to bring any old dyes, we discussed "How old is old?" I mean really old, from a textile art class I took in collage, probably 1977? We did batik and tie dye, stamping with fruits and vegies, and several other things I can't remember. The teacher purchased in bulk from Dharma, and we divided the dyes with the students. Dharma was maybe a few years old at this point. I remember their first store in Berkeley just down the street from me. They were stored well, in plastic baggies and in Tupperware brand spice shakers, the rubber bands on the bags were crumbly, but the dyes seemed in really good shape. I decided to try a sample, cause I did not want to take them to a workshop and ruin someones silk scarves.

I had been saving ice for a BBQ in the big freezer, so away I went, I got several wire shelve units, soaked muslin in soda ash, and bunched them up on the racks. With a face mask, sweating in the shade, I piled ice on each pile of folded or bunched muslin, then used a popsicle stick to dip into the dye powder, and shake it out on the ice. Then sit back and wait for the ice to melt, have you ever sat and waited for that, not very interesting. My boredom kept making me want to poke and prod, add more ice, more powder, etc... But, the instructions said "Let sit over night" so I waited, waited, took some pics..... wandered off. Give the dye time to migrate through the layers and twists of fabric, so it can penetrate the fibers. I did pick one piece up and look at the underside, so far so good. Stay tuned for the reveal tomorrow as I rinse and see the fruits of my labor.