Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Parfait snow dyeing

I had an idea to combine snow dyeing and parfait dyeing. In principal snowdyeing is very much like parfait dyeing but with parfait (everybody loves parfait!) you have 3 separated pieces. It is offering a whole new avenue of experimentation!

I first needed to engineer my own "tools" so I got out a candle, exacto knife and a few plastic containers and proceded to modify them. Simply said, I removed the bottoms :o). I wanted a container that would hold it all together as I dyed but also still let through the melt off.
Here are some all filled up and melting.These are top views .
I am doing more today, experimenting with color flow, who ends up with what colors (piece 1, 2 or 3) and how the dye behaves with the time and temp differences from top of the stack to the bottom. I am also trying 1 with a bottom to see what that does. I hope to post tomorrow some finished pieces. The pieces from the first lot are rinsed but have not gone through final wash. I am waiting to have a bunch, they are small squares and I don't like to waste water and energy.
Anyone else doing something exciting with the snow? I would love to hear about it! Anyone in Rochester Ny area that wants to play with some dye and snow? Drop me an email! I would love some group time.

2 comments:

  1. Always wondered what parfait dying was. Thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to seeing the results. You said you used a candle...was this to soften the plastic on bottom of cup before you removed it?

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  2. My initial results with parfait snow dyeing last year didn't excite me, but some of my normal parfaits haven't been stunning either.
    This year, I did some odd folding of some fabric before snow dyeing it the normal way. I wasn't happy with a couple pieces, so I overdyed them, also with the snow dyeing technique, and loved the results.

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