Last spring some gals from Sewing Guild, Carolyn and Lorel and myself visited a gentleman by the name of Larry and his wife. He introduced us to Stew Pot Dyeing. This method has been around forever but like all good things it comes back around every 30 years or so. Some call it compost dyeing and they actually stick the items in a compost pile, yuck!!! So in May we had our first class. We took silk scarf blanks, available online, and started our scarves with all natural dyes, like green tea, coffee grounds, regular tea, dirt, black beans, etc. The colors were very natural as expected. Lots of brown, taupe, etc, very pretty. So now we started looking for more color and as the garden produced we got into red cabbage, beets, mustard, spinach, basil, marigolds and assorted flowers and the colors are wild. It's amazing what ground up carrots produce, often times the colors are totally opposite of what you would suspect. Thus I call this Crap Shoot dyeing!!!!! For the mordant we used deodorant, copper and steel wire and rusty nails etc. Then you marinate your item in a ziploc with vinegar for several days to weeks depending on what you want. Then the items are air dried, washed and pressed and you are ready to show off your work of art.
We have had several fun dyeing days at different homes, pounding really helps embed the color and figure such as a fern leaf so we have hours of pounding out our frustrations, actually this is very good therapy!!! We have had a ton of fun. All the scarves the Sewing Guild made will be for sale at the St. Mary's Xmas Bazaar Nov. 6 from 7:30 to 3:30 at the Hospital in Madison. Probably more about that at their website.
We're having a great weekend Dave got the yard cleaned up and the garden pulled and I've had lunch out Friday and off to dinner on Saturday and off to Milwaukee for a luncheon fashion show on Sunday. Back to stabbin rags on Monday.
Have a great day!!!
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