Chino on organza and silk chiffon

This week I’ve been filling in some missing pages in my dye book. Somehow, in all the colors I have used and tested over the years there are no blues! Not really surprising when I look back at my work. About the only time I use blue is when I’m teaching. My intern, Mia, has done a terrific job doing tests on small pieces of fabrics so that I can see the colors hidden in the jars of dry dye.

I’m spending a lot of time these days drawing and cogitating on my solo show coming up in March at Foster/White. I’m planning to do an installation with big panels of dyed organza. I thought I’d do some tests while the dyes were mixed and ready. I sewed the panels into sleeves that fit on to my pvc pipes then smooshed them down rather than wrapping each with cord. It’s a bit of cheat but you can still get really beautiful results. Since I’m looking at doing 50 yards, I need to do it in a way that’s achievable in the time frame.

Wow! What an interesting set of results! I dyed both organza and a silk chiffon and got really different colors and effects. I used New Black 300 from Dharma, Chino from ProChem and Chocolate Brown from Dharma. Black and browns on silk are really hard to get using procion dyes and an alkaline fixative because of the way the dye chemistry works. Reds strike first and can dominate the color before the blues come along to shift it.

The chiffon compressed quite a bit and gave a tight and regular pattern and really dramatic color because of the way the dyes split. The marks on the organza were much more irregular and organic and I got a surprisingly good black. I wonder if this is because the seracin is still in the organza while it is stripped out of most silks. Always more research to do.

Although the color effects on the chiffon are very seductive, I’m still planning on using the organza. I like the transparency, the body, and the organic nature of the marks. I’ll have to file away that chiffon for another time and another project. I’m sure I can dream up something.

new black on chiffon and organza