Ice Dyeing

Inspired by Carol Ludington's article in the June/July issue of Quilting Arts, I tried my hand at ice dyeing. My friend Helena has had lots of success with this technique. She says it is positively addictive. The results have a lot more visual texture than the results of the flat dyeing that I tried last month. I would describe the effect as "blooming crystals", something like frost on a window pane.

After soaking PFD cotton in soda ash and wringing out, you arrange the wet fabric by scrunching, pleating or folding. and place it at the bottom of a tall, narrow container.

You could use a 2-litre soda bottle with the top cut off.

Then a few ice cubes are layered on top.

Powdered dye in tiny quantities is sprinkled over the ice.






Use no more than two or three colours.

                                   

Repeat until the container is almost full, and leave for 24 hours. The serendipitous effect of the melting ice gradually exposing the cloth to contact with the dye makes for some surprising results.