Chapter 4: Colour

 

Fig. 4:1

We were asked to find/colour fabrics and threads to match our twin themes of sea and sky, which related to the images we had chosen at the beginning of this module. Whilst looking around B & Q at paint colours for my brother's house, I came across a whole host of sea related colours in the paint samples. Of no practical use to the module of course, but an interesting and useful palette to have in mind.

I began by looking through my stash of fabrics for any which might be suitable and came up with this selection:

 

Fig. 4:2

 

Fig. 4:3

The fabrics in 4:2 are ones dyed by me for previous modules of this course, which are in the correct colour palette. Those in Fig. 4:3 are commercially printed fabrics, which may be of use at a later stage.

To colour my fabrics and threads this time I used just three colours of Procion dye - turquoise, ultramarine and lemon yellow.

 

Fig. 4:4

 

Fig. 4:5

 

Fig. 4:6

I used two types of thread - a bright white cotton perle and an undyed soft cotton thread, both of which I wound into 10 metre hanks (Fig. 4:4). I used a low immersion dye technique for both fabric and threads. The fabric (cotton, organdie and scrim) was scrunched up into the cocoa jars while the threads were draped between jamjars, each containing a different colour of dye (Fig. 4:5). The resulting threads are shown in Fig. 4:6.

 

Fig. 4:7

 

Fig. 4:8

The fabrics in Figs 4:7 and 4:8 were snow-dyed earlier in the year, using the same three colours, taking advantage of the 'Beast from the East' which provided us with lovely, powdery snow, which proved perfect for this very simple method of producing random dyed fabric.

 

Fig. 4:9 Organza

 

Fig. 4:10 Scrim

 

Fig. 4:11 Organza scarf

The fabric in 4:11 did not take up the dye very well and I realize with hindsight that this is probably due to its nylon content.

 

Fig. 4:12

 

Fig. 4:13

 

Fig. 4:14

 

Fig. 4:15

 

Fig. 4:16

I also painted some bondaweb and attached this to several pieces of white cotton fabric, which has produced some lovely sea-like effects (4:12 - 4:16).

 

Fig. 4:17

To complete the collection, Fig. 4:17 shows a selection of threads, some of those which I hand-dyed, others which are commercially produced.