Lemonade from Lemons

 I am aiming to record my thought and working process. I seldom start from a plan other than whether the work will be for the wall or the body. In this case I am making two tight twisted seersucker shawls.

First layer of MXdye screened on from a photo silk screen. 

this dark green will nearly disappear. Note to self avoid old dye especially in summer. 

Again the greens are going to fade to olive. 

I used different screens but the same dyes to build the two scarves. Each day I would screen and hand paint then allow the dyes to batch over night. Sometimes longer.

third layers for both scarves. 

Was quite pleased with the colors. But this was before wash out. 

Unfortunately after I washed them out I lost almost all of the deep greens. NEVER USE OLD DYE. 

So I rolled them up and over dyed using acid dyes. An exciting new approach for me.

Finished scarf.. tied. The colors were dreadful after the wash out.  So awful that I neglected to take a picture. SIGH, try to image pale but harsh colors. I had forgotten that mixed MX gets stale and loses strength quickly during a Philadelphia summer.

So it was acid dye to the rescue. This one was edge dyed by rolling it up and only dyes the outer edges. I lost the lovely orange stripes but gained some great blue depth.

Finished scarf draped you can see that the deep green of the center linear print  became an olive drab. 

Edge and dip dyed  Cabbage rose wrapped as a shawl 

 This one started with the same folded edge dyeing but I was still not happy so after creating the deeper blue edge the whole piece got dip dyed. The orginal MX printed red ( one of my favorites from the "cabbage rose series" was strong enough to hold its own against the acid dyes.
I am a real fan of edge shading /ombre and love the added depth the acid dyes created.

Wrapped as an infinity scarf

Thrown over the shoulder.