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Snow Dyeing: Transformation of the Eco-Duds

Jan. 17, 2016. Last year I was enchanted by the possibility of creating "eco-prints," by bundling up flowers and leaves in white cloth and letting them "cold-process" for a month or steaming them on the stove. The results were not pretty, literally. I got a few faint impressions of maple leaves, but in general, the accumulating pile of fabric looked sad and possibly infectious. The image below (maple leaves cold-bundled into habotai silk) was the best of the lot.

So last week, with fresh snow on the ground, I looked around for some fabric to further experiment with ice dyeing.

The eco-duds!

Step 1: Pre-soak in fixative. Threw the eco-duds into a bath of soda ash and salt, which you can make in bulk and have on hand to prepare cloth for Procion MX dyes (Formula: 1 gallon warm water, 1/3 cup soda ash [fixative], ½ cup table salt [optional, for brighter colors]. STIR thoroughly to dissolve chemicals completely.) Immediately, the markings on the cloth turned coppery, so I got excited that something interesting would happen. After 1/2 hour, removed cloth and squeezed out excess.

Step 2: Add snow. Arranged the six pieces of cloth on the bottom of a large plastic bowl. Heaped snow on top (about 1/2 a bucket).

Step 3: Sprinkle dye. Wearing apron, rubber gloves, and respirator mask, I sprinkled on the powdered dyes: Sea Glass, Cobalt Blue, Peacock Blue, Bachelor's Button, and Bahama Blue. Covering the bowl, I left it in a warm place for about 24 hours.

Step 4: Wash. The usual after-dye routine: cold water wash with a squeeze of blue Dawn (washing machine, gentle cycle, with added rags/towels to balance the load. I always throw in a Shout Color Catcher sheet to pick up any errant color.). When that's done, I rearrange the wet cloth (esp. if it's tangled), then duplicate the process using hot water. This time, I didn't bother with the dryer, but went straight to the ironing board.

Results

I expected the chemical Procion MX dye to overpower the biologicals. But I was amazed to see that they played beautifully together. Image below: two habotai silk scarves from the maple leaf experiment (same as image on top).

Image below: 3 pieces of damask linen (old table cloth) and a piece of unbleached muslin (right). The silk and linen came from my maple leaf experiment. I think the muslin came from a random weed experiment, steamed in a bundle.

Afterthoughts

It's a cliché that there are no failures in the textile biz -- a dud is simply raw material (and learning) for the next project. But I did think about the difference between "serendipity" and "power." Serendipity is that luck that "favors the prepared mind" [Louis Pasteur]. Using the eco-print duds in an ice-dyeing project had a serendipitous result: a transformation from unusable to usable, from ugly to pretty. Delightful and unexpected.

But if I want to be a true textile alchemist, I need the POWER: enough knowledge and experience to plan a project and get the predicted result, with the delightful surprises being little bonuses around the edges, hints of epiphanies to come.

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