Dyeing to Dye! Where's the snow?

Winter came a little early this year to our little corner of the world in Southern Idaho.  We saw a significant snow fall in November.  Being a 'snow-dyer' I was so excited to get started dyeing again using snow.  I have my dye studio set up now in our garage (no, the car has never been in there), and supplies at the ready only to discover that I had forgotten to order fabric!  So, a quick order was placed for 25 yards of the mercerized cotton that I like to use.  Unfortunately, the snow melted before my fabric arrived.  Here's the kicker;  we've not gotten ANY snow accumulation since then!  Yesterday, my daughter started skiing at the closet ski-area (1-1/2 hours away).  I started looking around at the mountains of snow available, and thought I could just bring some home.  Soooo... next week if we do not have any snow here I will be transporting boxes of snow home with me.  My daughter has already informed me that she will claim to not know me when I start shoveling snow into the back of the car!

I thought I would share some of my snow-dyed fabrics and hand-dyes from last year.  I will be putting much of it up for sale on my new Etsy shop (work in progress); so if you see something that you HAVE to have just send me an email

This last green piece was not snow-dyed.  I painted it with Setacolor paints, after heat setting the paint it was over-dyed with a Shibori technique.

Happy New Year!

My New Year's resolution this year was to start a blog and keep up with it....so, welcome to my blog!

Every year during Christmas I try to work on new techniques.  This year I worked on my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge #52.  We are challenged to complete a piece of artwork within one week, based upon a set of requirement for that particular month.  The challenge occurs the last week of each month.

My piece, "Lava" was created from a single piece of my own hand-dyed fabric. I distorted the fabric by slicing is up, staggering the pieces and then sewing it back together. The black strip signifies "nothingness, deep in the earth; where the lava comes from". It is heavily quilted, using 10 different threads to add to the color patterns. I used many metallic threads; gold, bronze red, garnet and black to signify the metals found in lava. I found this challenge exceptionally challenging; the more I studied "Color Field Painting" challenge, the more I became confused. Hopefully this fits the the description; it was fun and I am happy with the piece. Just need to finish the edges and label it. It measures 22"x26".

I thought I would also share the 1st challenge that I have completed, that being the FFFC Challenge #49 which was based upon the technique "Chiaroscuro".

 "Frog on a Leaf" was created from a photo that I've had for quite a while. The frog is appliqued from my hand dyed fabrics and thread painted. The background is a tonal batik which has been heavily quilted for texture. I also added Shiva Painsticks and Inktense watercolor pencils for highlights and shadows. It measures 12"x13".