I have had a great opportunity this lockdown to to deliver some online workshops for the BA students at UCA. Usually i'd be delivering inductions for safe use of equipment, which I do enjoy but this is a great step up from that which allows me to show off a bit more of my knowledge and creativity.
It's been a really useful opportunity to also explore some processes that I haven't practiced in quite a while, plus there are very little textile processes that I have tried at home. I wanted to offer some fun easy workshops that show students that they doesn't necessarily need high-tech equipment to produce some fun and exciting samples from whatever they have at home.
The first workshop I have delivered for the BA students was a couple of weeks ago, which was showing them how to do ice dyeing on fabric.
Ice dyeing is such an easy was to dye from home, it requires very little effort and you really don't need to have a creative mind, it's just fun to see the variety of outcomes. The outcomes that you usually get resemble similar effects to tie dyeing and thats what many people may refer the designs to.
I wanted to share with you my method, how I have been taught. There are different methods out there, I find this to be really successful and easy.
Also as just a note, I've recently been blessed with becoming an auntie to beautiful twins - my niece and nephew. I love them to pieces and really wanted to print them some fabric and make into clothing but as it's lockdown that idea has gone out the window for now, so I have decided to dye some baby grows and iddy-biddy socks for them as a present for when I get to see them out of lockdown.
The Process...
1. I start by taking over the sink area and have used a metal plate drainer to put over the sink (Ideally you want chicken wire or some metal or plastic mesh that will hold your fabric up and out of the sink). I have then put paper on to of this - only because I didn't want any potential grease to get on the baby clothes - you would have to do this but I wanted to make sure the baby clothes didn't directly touch the drainer. I could also use the dyed paper later for something else, like collage or sketchbook work.
2. Then I placed the clothes on the paper, slightly scrunched up randomly.
3. Randomly put on top a fair amount of ice cubes on top of the clothes, I recommend stacking quite a few on top of each other, they don't have to cover every inch of fabric.
4. Sprinkle all over some Soda Ash (Sodium carbonate) as this will really help the dye to fix on the fabric which gives you bright, strong colours.
5. Sprinkle the dye on areas you wish to dye. This doesn't have to be all over, but I really wanted lots of bright colour so I may have gone a little over-the-top but a little more dye won't hurt. You may want to be very gentle and minimal if you want to achieve pastel colours.
6. Sprinkle over the top plenty of table salt. This encourages the fibres to absorb as much dye as possible.
7. Leave it. I recommend leaving the ice to completely melt under normal temperatures, plus a couple of hours to help let the colours set into the fibres(this might be around 8 - 10 hours) so I would say do it late in the day then leaving it over night.
After 2 hours...
After 6 hours...
Over night...
8. Wash out by hand in the sink thoroughly a few times, first in cold water, then a fresh sink with warm soapy water, then again in fresh cold water and finally agin in warm soapy water to get extra dye out that may linger in the fibres. For darker colour it may take a few more washes. You can of course just put them in your washing machine but from experience i would trust putting any dye in your washing machine as it could linger there and stain some of your other clothing later.
9. Iron and you're done :)
These are how the baby clothes turned out!
Recommended likes to dyes and kits:
Use natural fibres such as cotton, linen, silk or viscose etc. If you use synthetic fabrics, these particular dyes won't work well and you'll probably find that the colours just run off the fabric when washing or they are very pale.