We got messy with some dyes this week. We hand dyed a batch of open weave fabrics for inclusion in our felt. When making wet felt items such as felt pods or felt cuffs we love to liberally sprinkle in lots of extra bits to add texture and interest.
Here is the result of several hours of mixing potions in the kitchen!
The trouble is that dyeing is so addictive...we ran out of fabric long before we ran out of ideas for mixing colours. We used procion dyes to give a nice strong colour but we'd also like to have a go at using some natural dyes. Apparently you can use onion skins and marigolds and other things from the garden so we'll have to do some research. Has anyone had a go?
Here is an example of how we use our fabrics when making wet felt. The effect depends on the fabric you use and how much it distorts in the felt - but that is the joy of it - you never know exactly what you're going to get!
Of course its not just used in wet felting it can be used in hand needle felt too. It also looks great when used on an embellishing machine as you can get lots of pretty loops poking through the fabric. So much to play with, so little time!
Lovely blog,onions dye a glorious warm orangey yellow but you have to use a mordant on the fabric first I use Alum.
Posted by: Pippa | Thursday, 26 November 2009 at 11:07 PM