Environmentally Friendly Gift Wrapping

The holiday season is well underway and I don't know about you all- I love beautifully wrapped gifts, but as I stare at rubbish bags filled with sparkly paper, tape and ribbon, I think there must be more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Let me introduce to you all...the Japanese art of furoshiki.

Furoshiki is when you take a square of  cloth to wrap an object or objects to make it easier to carry or just to look nice. One advantage of these methods is that it's incredibly easy to wrap odd shaped objects as well as multiple objects.

Environmentally- I used old sheets, no tape, no ribbon, and they are washable and re-useable!

I started by cutting some squares of cloth in a couple of different sizes and preparing them for some tiedye techniques.

I then put them in some plastic and glass containers and used the same low immersion dyeing technique I used in this blog post

I used Colourcraft Ltd. olive green and scarlet.

  Oops how did this get in here?

 Here are the cloths as they are drying- pretty as is! But I wanted to add a bit more.

I got out some Aztec metallic paints, a Gelli plate and some wooden stamps.

Here are some details of my results!

I then poked around the internet and found this link  for some clear directions. They mention 45 cm squares, but when we make our own, we can make them any size we want!!

I'm sure I'll get better at the wrapping techniques with more practice.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Enjoy your holidays and don't forget that taking time to do something creative is a great way to deal with holiday stress.

Aztec eco metallic paint starter paint

fabric paint opaque

Rubber Roller

Gelli plate set round square triangle

Super Easy Low Immersion Dyeing with Colourcraft!

The idea of dyeing your own fabric can feel a bit overwhelming...different chemicals to think of, special equipment etc etc. Guess what, it does not have to be complicated at all!!! This week using the procion dye starter kit (plus an extra color or so), some basic measuring equipment(make this for dyeing only!) and prewashed fabric (no softeners!), I got some fabulous, festive results in Fall colors!!

I started with the starter kit, in addition to everything else, you also need containers that your fabric fits in when scrunched up- here I have a jar and a couple of small plastic buckets.
My fabric is just prewashed- it's dry and not treated with anything! Scrunch it up into those containers!

Next I blended about a teaspoon of each color I wanted to use with about ½ cup of tap hot water.  I took my inspiration from Autumn leaves- Olive green, Vivid yellow, Scarlett, Orange and Violet.Then it's just pouring it over your scrunched up fabrics! You can use pipettes, you can also start with some dye in the bottom of your container, squish in the fabric, add water, squish some more, add another dye color. It's all about experimentation! 

You can see how the dyes sometimes split when creeping along the dry fabric- especially in the top photo.

How long this step takes is up to you! If you fix your fabrics too soon- you won't get a lot of the beautiful effects that happen over time. If you wait too long- your colors will blend together and become diffuse. The process takes from 15 minutes to an hour. 

While my fabrics were doing their thing- I blended together the fixative (soda ash) with hot water. I use 1 tsp per cup- the tricky part is that is per cup of total liquid- that is, the liquid you had in your dyes as well. I estimated that I used about 2 cups total of liquid with the dye, and that I would need 4 more cups of water to cover my fabrics so I mixed 4 cups of hot water with 6 teaspoons of the fixative.

When I was ready, I poured the fixative/water mixture over each of my fabrics. When this soaks into the fabric, the dyes stop reacting. 

I let these sit a couple hours to make sure the fixative mixture had soaked in-you can let it sit up to 24 hours if you want!

Then it was rinsing my fabrics (I throw them into the washing machine)and dry them.

I am so pleased with the results!

The fun thing about this last one is that I used a fabric that had been a commercially printed white on white design. The printing doesn't take the dye, which gives a lovely result!

So easy! With fantastic results!!
Give it a try!!

See you next time!

click here for the Procion Starter Kit

Shibori Dyeing with Colourcraft Procion Dyes

Hello!
A few weeks ago, I showed you ice dyeing with Colourcraft Procion Dyes- today I want to share with you a different way to dye fabric called Shibori. Shibori is a Japanese method of dyeing fabric- involving manipulating the fabric to form different patterns. Some designs are stitched, but I wanted to show some folding and clamping techniques.

The basic concept is that by folding and clamping your fabrics in different ways, you will get different patterns when you color your fabrics.

My fabric is prepared with the fixer included in the starting kit, and I mixed all my chemicals using the instructions that come with the kit.

Check out the video for more details!

I hope you enjoyed this information and video. This is a great way to make your own fabrics for art quilting or even to do t-shirts and more! 

See you next time.

Procion Dye Starter Kit

Cool off with ICE DYEING by Tamara

Hope you all are enjoying the summer heat!

In this blog post I want to share with you how to do ice dyeing with Colourcraft's procion dyes!

There are many different ways to dye fabric with procion dyes. This one is fun and easy and you get beautiful and unexpected results.

Check out the video with an overview of the process here:

First a little health and safety information- please read all information that comes with these chemicals. It's especially important to keep any equipment you use for dying only (do NOT reuse for food), a dust mask is really good idea when dealing with powdered chemicals, and gloves! Please use gloves.

Ok...on to the fun part!

Procion dyes are used for cellulose based fabrics. I used 100% cotton that had been prewashed (ok old sheets).

First I mixed the fixer according to the directions (I used 40g fixer and 2 liters hot water), then I soaked my fabrics for a few minutes.

I use some old crates(upside down) that are holey to hold my fabrics. Basically you need something that holds your fabric up, but lets the water run through. An old baking dish and rack can also work really well. I had mine out on the grass, but if you don't want dye on your lawn or are dyeing elsewhere, it's good to have a container to catch your dye.

I squeezed out the extra solution from my fabrics and arranged them onto the crates. You want to have as much of the surface exposed really, but having your fabric crinkled is part of what gives such interesting effects.

I then covered my fabrics with a layer of ice. I had bought a bag from the supermarket- different types of cubes and crushed ice can give different effects- snow works in the winter!

I selected my colors and sprinkled the powders over the ice. I wanted one batch to be colors that are next to each other on the color wheel to show how they can blend into other colors as they melt.

A few specks of the red violet blew over into the other fabrics, but that just makes the final result more interesting.

Now its just to wait for the ice to melt!

When the ice was melted I covered the fabrics with plastic and let them sit a few more hours to make sure the dyes really set into the fabric, then I rinsed out and washed in my washing machine.

Final results:

You can see for yourself all the beautiful effects this techniques give! I was extremely impressed with the brightness of Colourcraft's dyes as well. I will be using these in future projects. 

Hope you enjoyed today's blog, see you soon.

Procion dye starter kit