In March of 2016 Susan Cuss shared with the members of the Embroidery Guild of Peterborough her experiment in snow dyeing. She also shared some pictures of the finished products.
So, although, this was not a formal workshop, she did share her story of how she proceeded through the project. Hence, the article below from Susan Cuss on snow dyeing.
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I used two containers of powdered dye, brand name Tulip and I bought them at Walmart. I washed the fabrics, without using conditioner, as instructed. I gathered the wet fabric pieces, some folded, and some clumped, and layered them in no particular order, adding dye powder and snow between the layers. Fabric, snow, dye powder, snow, fabric, snow, dye powder, snow. I did this on top of a plastic pan with the layered fabric sandwich supported on a cooling rack. I put some other fabric in the bottom of the plastic pan so the upper layers might drip through to colour them.
Last Saturday was warm and sunny, so I put the dye arrangement outside to take advantage of the warm temperatures. Once all the snow was gone, I put all the wet fabric into a plastic bag, mushed it all up, and let it batch for two days, periodically “smushing” and turning the bag in hopes that the dyes might seep into neighbouring fabrics.
After two days I removed the fabrics and hung them to air-dry with other fabric pieces underneath to catch any drips. The next day the fabrics were almost dry to the touch, and I threw them into the dryer on high to help set the colour. I spent some time ironing all the pieces.
What I found fascinating is that the thread designs on some fabric pieces would absorb more dye than the fabrics. Sometimes these threads acted as a resist, and kept their white colour while the fabric absorbed the dye. Each piece is unique, and I now have a nice stash of pink/blue/purple fabric to use in a project I’m working on. I also dyed 1 piece of ribbon which turned out beautifully. It’s funny how some fabrics absorbed lots of intense colour, and others did not.
I also did an experiment with painting lace with fabric paints.
