The day I’ve been waiting for!

Vat dyes have intrigued me since I first learned about them in Carol Soderlund’s Dyeing to Discharge class, or maybe before. When I saw this class listed on Pro Chem’s website, I was so excited. Well, finally I’m here! The first three days were good, and I certainly learned a lot. But today we got into itajame (also spelled itajime) – resists with clamped shapes. Elin’s work is so gorgeous! Here are a few samples, and click here to link to Elin’s home page. Again, hover the cursor over the picture for a brief explanation.

We also got to look at everyone’s work from Friday – except mine, since I didn’t dye anything. More pictures:

And Elin gave us a demo using a couple different tools for holding fabric. Still more pictures:

She also showed us samples made with these sorts of tools:

And I also got some of my own work done – at least to a point:

This is a piece of cotton-silk Radiance from  Robert Kaufman. It was originally a purple – Amethyst. I had pole-wrapped it and gotten a little subtle texture on it before class.This improved version is striking, and it has also been re-folded, waiting for a vat tomorrow. Can’t wait!