Day 1 of class

Well, I don’t know how people can produce such great blogs. I’m determined to keep up on this, but I’m not sure if it will be interesting! Today was the first day of the 'Dyeing to Discharge' class with Carol Soderlund, and it was quite interesting. Some things we did were driven by the availability of good weather – we’re supposed to have rain later in the week, so we’re taking advantage of the outdoors where possible.
Today we did some very basic dyeing with Procion MX dyes – all single pure colors on cotton and silk, and made pieces big enough so all of us could have a sample of the un-discharged control, and the end result using one or two methods of discharge. We also brought in commercial blacks and batiks on a variety of fibers, and discharged them with the same methods, leaving one piece for a control. Carol gave us great instructions for small scale immersion dyeing and discharging using both Thiox and bleach.

Our last task was to make up batches of potato dextrin resist. Then, while it cooled, we went upstairs for another wonderful dinner by Margaret Wolf. I have refrained from licking the plates, but it’s a tough struggle. After dinner and conversation, we went downstairs for a lesson in applying the resist. Of course, I jumped the gun, and had potato starch soaking into my fabric a while. It may be ‘spud crud’ when it’s all done, but I did learn to pay attention. Of course the glass of wine with dinner had nothing to do with it!
That’s it for tonight – images include hanging samples on the line on a beautiful spring day, and my larger pieces with the potato dextrin applied. Tomorrow – dried dextrin and post discharge pictures, and my first foray into Thermofax screens. We’ll have a little more classroom time when it rains.