Recently I saw this beautiful photo of hand-dyed silk cloth on Facebook, the work of Inge Dam. Her caption was "Snow dyeing surprise." Boy, was I surprised; I'd never heard of snow dyeing! What an interesting concept.
When I inquired about snow-dyeing, she sent me the link to these instructions from the dye manufacturer, PRO Chemical & Dye. http://www.prochemical.com/directions/MX%20PDF/Snow%20Dyeing.pdf
Sounds like fun, right? You can buy the dye and if you can't find snow, then you manufacture your own just like the ski resorts do. (The instructions actually say that you can make your own "snow" by using a snow cone machine.) She used the real stuff.
Inge also sent me these photos of some yarns and the dyeing process. Amazing!
Look at all of those colors!
This is the silk yarn that came out from under all that snow and color.
In this photo, the snow is pretty much melted away, leaving.....
This cotton yarn in scrumptious hues.
Inge is a master weaver and textile designer living in Ontario, Canada. She has earned the distinction of Master Weaver from the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners by completing an in-depth study of Iron Age Textiles from Northern Europe. Drawing on the inspiration from these studies, she now incorporates tablet woven borders and bands into her loom woven textiles. Her colors are vibrant and beautiful and her combined textures within a single piece create her very unique style. Have a look at the photo gallery here on her website for a real treat! Many thanks to Inge for sharing her photos and inspiration with me and allowing me to share it here with you.
Hi Annie, love Inge's gallery--also the slide show of images that go by when you are on her home page is amazing, esp those shots of gorgeous in-progress works on her big loom with card-weaving sections within the larger warp...
ReplyDeleteBTW i tried to post a comment on your "uses for a band" page, but couldn't (no comment field). I love that page and recommend it a lot! if you ever get a chance to fill in some of those blank image files...? they were so inspiring!
Ingrid- I'm glad that you discovered Inge's website. Impressive, right?
ReplyDeleteI'll go fix the comments thing on the "Uses for a Band" page and am glad to know that you are finding it useful and recommending it.
Although I've replaced some of the lost photos, it is slow going. It is hard to go back when you are trying to go forward at the same time.
~Annie
I was just thinking about snow dyeing last Thursday when we finally got our share of snow. I have yet to try it, as I would definitely need to modify the instructions as I use acid dyes on protein fibers almost exclusively, but I'm sure it can be done, right?
ReplyDeleteThanks to Inge as well for the lovely shot of inspiration!
Cobaltandindigo- Well, it would be interesting to see what results you get when you try it. Drop me a line and let me know how it goes. Last weekend, I went to visit my son in the mountains and it snowed! If only I'd planned ahead!
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