Ice-dyeing – “it’s all in the folding” – Part 2

As I wrote in Part 1, I had such a lot of fun with the ice-dyeing – folding fabric, placing in colanders and on racks, covering with ice and then sprinkling with dye powders, until I ran out of ice – ouch!  Weekend and local store closed early, I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow, so came up with plan B –  there was no point in wasting all that folding energy, and wicking would be a good way to use up left over liquid dyes.

I started with red – two different dyes mixed together and some poured into the bottom of a flat bowl, quickly dip the folded fabric into it, count to 5 and turn the fabric over, count to 5 again and remove to a clean bowl – leave overnight.

Wicking – various reds mixed together

As you can see, there is a lot of white there – the fabric was folded very tight and not much liquid dye, and one of the reds separated, you can see the yellow circle.  It looked stunning on the wall.

For the next one I used 2 colours – Yellow 2R/yellow 8G mix for the first dip, and Violet RA for the second dip. This fabric was wetter than the red one above, and so the dye moved much quicker and further.

Wicking – Procion Violet RA and Yellow 2RA

Some of these are two different colours, but most are of one colour made with two different dyes.

Wicking with Procion Indigo MX

I love this Indigo colour, just like the real indigo without the mess, and you can get paler or darker much easier.  It is available from Dharma in the USA.

Wicking – Turquoise & Ultramarine blues

Wicking – Fuschia Red 8B, and Red 5B mix

Wicking – pastel blue & purple mix

Wicking – Various yellows mixed

Wicking – Ruby red on only one folded edge

Wicking – olive green and green MX mix

Wicking – Violet RA & Yellow 2RA

Close-up – Violet & Yellow wicking

Wicking – sky blue & lime green

Lime green – split colour

Close-up of lime green split

Wicking – sky blue & lime green

Close-up of sky blue & lime green wicking

Wicking sky blue & lime green

As you can see, wicking produces some interesting results, a bit more planned than dyeing under ice, even though the folding is the same.

The drier the fabric, the more white, and the wetter the fabric the more wicking and spreading of colour.

One dye which consistently separates is the lime green, sometimes there is more yellow and other times a hint of blue in the separation. I haven’t worked out what the catalyst is yet – sometimes it is the temperature of the water when mixing the dye in the first place, but not always, and other times I can’t work out a reason at all.

Thank you for reading this far, now it’s your turn to try out some of these techniques and leave a comment on your results below.

Keep smiling, the silly season is nearly over 🙂

A Happy New Year to all my readers.