More Snow Dyeing

I still had plenty of snow over the weekend to do another set of napkins. This set, given to me by a friend, (thanks, Carolyn) had ten lovely cotton-damask dinner sized napkins. Now that the word is out, people are giving them to me. Yesterday I received some beautiful linen luncheon size. They had been starched and ironed and were so stiff they could stand up by themselves. They are now in the wash to get rid of all that starch. I'm not sure yet how I want to dye them.

For those of you who don't know about snow dyeing, this is how it works.
First you soak your fabrics in a strong solution of soda ash and salt.
Then you wring them out, put them in bundles in the bottom of a plastic dish pan.
Cover the fabric with snow right up to the top of the pan.
Sprinkle dye powders over the snow, trying to get them even, but not always possible.

Dye powders sprinkled on top of the snow.

After several hours, sitting on the kitchen floor.

I leave it until the snow melts and then take the fabric out. When I first saw them I thought they were horrible, mostly a very dark red. You can't tell the true colors until they are washed in Synthropol and hot water and then dried in the dryer.

Each one varies from the next. These are all folded and if they are opened they are different from one end to the other. The colors I used (all ProChem fiber reactive dyes) are Sun Yellow, Wedgewood Blue, Amethyst, Fuchsia, and Chartreuse. Here are just a few. If you click on a picture and then click again you can see some of the beautiful patterns in the damask.

These were photographed outside on my front porch, which is dark gray slate. The colors are true.

I threw some scraps of velveteen in just to see how they would take the dye. Wow! Did they ever! The colors are much more intense than they are on the napkins. I'm not sure how I want to use these, but  know I want to make some more.

This is the reverse side of the velvet. You can see that the color is more vivid on the plush side.

So the fun goes on! I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday later in the week.