Tien Chiu

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Cross dyed samples

I’m continuing to process the cross dyed samples (tencel warp, alpaca weft, dyed in fiber-reactive and then in acid dyes).  About half of them are finished, the other half will be discharged and redyed in some fashion.

Here are some of the results so far:

horse, scrunch dyed in turquoise/purple fiber reactive dyes, then stenciled with acid dyes. 3-1 twill with acid dye dominant.
horse, scrunch dyed in turquoise/purple fiber reactive dyes, then stenciled with acid dyes. 3-1 twill with acid dye dominant.

This looks pretty good; the background provides texture but is not too intrusive.

This, on the other hand, doesn’t work well at all:

horse, scrunch dyed with turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dye and then stenciled with acid dye in fuchsia. Complex patterning in weave structure.
horse, scrunch dyed with turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dye and then stenciled with acid dye in fuchsia. Complex patterning in weave structure.

The background pattern is so complex, and so high-contrast, that you can barely make out the horse.

My favorite horse pattern is actually this one:

horse, scrunch dyed with turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dye and then stenciled with acid dye in fuchsia. Crepe weave.
horse, scrunch dyed with turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dye and then stenciled with acid dye in fuchsia. Crepe weave.

The crepe weave is my unexpected favorite for the dyed samples.  I hadn’t expected much out of it, but it gives a complex textured background that has just enough additional contrast to provide an interesting background (vs. the 2-2 and 1-3 twills, which aren’t visually very interesting).  But it’s not powerful enough to overwhelm, even when faced with a complex and delicate figure.

Here it is again, without the figure:

crepe weave, scrunch dyed in turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dyes, then scrunch dyed in fuchsia and burgundy acid dyes
crepe weave, scrunch dyed in turquoise and purple fiber-reactive dyes, then scrunch dyed in fuchsia and burgundy acid dyes

I really like the “textured” look of the crepe weave, even without a strong image.

Meanwhile, here are a few high-contrast woven patterns with low-contrast dye jobs:

various high contrast weave patterns on low contrast dye jobs
various high contrast weave patterns on low contrast dye jobs

These are all pretty successful.  Later I am going to try discharging and re-dyeing an image on top of some of them.

Here is a pair of low-contrast dye jobs on a relatively humdrum background:

2-2 twill, scrunch dyed in turquoise/purple fiber reactive dye and then scrunch dyed in red/burgundy acid dyes
2-2 twill, scrunch dyed in turquoise/purple fiber reactive dye and then scrunch dyed in red/burgundy acid dyes

I like this one as well, though I would probably use it as the background for an image rather than use sizable chunks of it as-is.

This, on the other hand, is not successful – there is simply too much going on.  The eye doesn’t know where to look first, or where to rest!  So (not too surprisingly) high-contrast dyejobs don’t mix too well with busy backgrounds.

arashi shibori fiber-reactive dye in purple and black, followed by scrunch-dyeing in red/purple acid dye. Complex weave pattern.
arashi shibori fiber-reactive dye in purple and black, followed by scrunch-dyeing in red/purple acid dye. Complex weave pattern.

And, finally, two simple stenciled images:

fuchsia fiber-reactive dye, then stenciled again with red and yellow acid dyes. Because it is a 3-1 twill with the tencel side up, the fiber-reactive maple leaf is dominant and the acid dye appears as a "ghost".
fuchsia fiber-reactive dye, then stenciled again with red and yellow acid dyes.

This one (above) is interesting because of the “ghost image”.  It is a 3-1 twill with the cellulose side dominant, so the fuchsia fiber-reactive dye appears as a strong image, whereas the red acid dye is much less obvious, more like a shadow.  This could be used in designing.

And this one I like because the complex weave structure adds interest to the simple image, without dominating:

complex weave structure, simple figures in acid and fiber-reactive dyes.
complex weave structure, simple figures in acid and fiber-reactive dyes.

That’s it so far!  More to come later in the week (or over the weekend), when I have a chance to finish the discharged-and-redyed samples.

Comments

  1. You do the most interesting experiments! I really like the samples without the stenciling, it is interesting enough on it’s own really. Wonderful.

  3. These are wonderful and I too have been experimenting with the effects of fiber reactive dyes and traditional shibori techniques on handwoven fabric. Thank you so much for your generous sharing of your knowledge.

  4. Tien, these are very interesting. I especially enjoyed the ones with the leaves. Betz