A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Rubber bands

Rubber bands can be used in different ways. In earlier blogposts I showed them to you in combination with yoghurt cups or with pinches of fabric. Here is another way of using them:



 The fabric was soaked in soda ash before I wrapped the rubber bands around it.


Each rubber band will leave a mark on the dyed fabric. This 'snake' was placed in a container on a raised platform and covered with snow.




I did not measure how much dye powder I used for this one, but the colors I used were Aquamarine, Dark Green and Black (all Dharma). When I work with dyepowder, I prefer to cover the powder with a thin layer of snow. This was left to batch till the next morning.


The fabric was rinsed, washed and ironed and now looks like this:


Instead of using the rubber bands to create a 'snake', you can also use them this way:


The soda soaked fabric was crunched into a ball and rubber bands were wrapped around it. This ball was placed in a container on a raised platform and ice cubes were placed on top. Dye powder was added and some more ice cubes. Sorry, but I forgot to write down which dye powders I used.


After rinsing, washing and ironing the fabric looks like this:


This is a 0,5 yard piece of cotton. Depending on how you crunch this, certain areas will be closer to the outside of the ball than others. This will effect the way the colors show. Areas which are crunched tight, will be lighter than areas where the fabric is more loose.

12 comments:

  1. I am always amazed at what snow and ice can do to create even more beauty to a piece of fabric! Love the colors in the second one!

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  2. Beautiful, Wil! I like the idea of covering the dye powders with a little more snow... I'm always leery of the dye powders becoming disturbed by air gusts, so that would help.

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  3. Beautiful pieces, I love the way you are experimenting with this.
    Do you dry the fabric before wrapping, or do you use wet fabric?
    I love to see your next posts...

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  4. Eke, I use the wet fabric or I wrap the rubber bands before I soak the fabric in soda ash.

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  5. These are fabulous! Now I'm looking forward to the snow!

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  6. The orange piece reminds me of jasper (the gem stone)

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  7. I think I might have to go buy a bag of ice tomorrow.......

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  8. The last one will always be one of my favorites!!

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  9. How did you fold, pleat or scrunch the fabric before applying rubber bands?

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  10. Teresa, You need to enable a reply. Without an email address we can't contact you.

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  11. Teresa, I scrunched the fabric so that I could put the rubber bands around it.

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