Painted and Solid Warp

In a comment on the last post, Joanna asked whether what I call a "painted warp" is different from what she calls a "space-dyed warp"? No, they're pretty much the same thing. Even in the cases in which the space-dyed warp is created by dip-dying sections in different dye-pots, if the end result is a movement from one color to another, they're going to give the same visual effect. If it looks like a duck, right?

She also asked if I painted it while it was chained. Again, no. I chain it to soak in the acid solution, then unchain it to paint and wrap in plastic to steam. After steaming, I remove the plastic and rechain it so it's easier to handle while rinsing. Then I unchain it again to dry, and re-chain to store. It's all an effort to keep a bundle of 60/2 silk from tangling hopelessly in handling, while making it available to the brush and dye, and to the [very dry] air after rinsing.

Open Studios was pretty quiet today, so not only did I have time to press two scarves (recently fringe-twisted) that were laundered last night, and twist the fringe on another scarf from the to-be-fringed pile, but I also was able to photograph the solid-dyed skeins of warp thread alongside the painted warp.



As it turned out, the solid thread is a tad lighter in value than the painted warp, but I think the colors are so nice together it'll work out just fine in the weaving.

The next task is to wind off skeins of 100/2 silk for the wefts, and use the left-over 1% dye stock from the painted warp to dye the wefts. I'm gonna try really hard to make the wefts either much lighter or much darker than the warps - I don't want 'em in the same value range. We'll see.

If you're in the area, do drop by tomorrow for the last day of this season's Open Studios. DH and I are in danger of getting bored with so little traffic! We have managed to meet more neighbors, but would love to greet more patrons of the arts!!! Or fellow artists, for that matter...