This was my second attempt at snow/ice dyeing. During my first attempt, I used snow (the last snow of the year (in April!)) and waaaay too much dye. The fabric dyed, but the results weren’t terribly interesting. At least, not any more interesting than if I’d tub dyed it. I was hoping for more novel textures I couldn’t get from just scrunching the fabric.
In this try, I used ice from a bag. I used commercially printed yellow fabric which I soaked in water and wrung out. I laid it out with random folds on top of a cooling rack (who could have predicted I would choose dyeing fabric over cooling cookies?) which I put over a dishpan.
The first time I snow dyed, the fabric sat in the melted snow + dye mix, so I ended up with very few undyed areas. I thought elevating it over a pan might make the results more interesting.
I sprinkled the dye over the top of the ice. I was feeling impatient, so I put it in the sun to melt faster. I let it melt all the way down and then rinsed it out and laid it out over the banister to dry in the sun.
This picture (above) is way over saturated; it was bright, but not quite that bright.
These photos are after it was dry and ironed. There are some interesting textures, some color mixing, but I don’t think the dye I used was the best choice. There was no color separation, which was probably the dye.
Speckles are always interesting. And I like the mirror images that folds create, but I was hoping for more ice cube textures. I think I can just make out a few in the image below.
It’s a fun process, but I don’t think I’ve found anything exceptional about it. I feel like I could get these textures by tub dyeing. I think I need to experiment more.
Next time:
☆ use less dye
☆ don’t rush the melt
☆ combine with some kind of resist?
