Clearing the Decks

I'm finally getting ready to dye-paint Connie Rose's shibori-tied silk shawl. We've been back and forth over the color palette, making sure I get (with my local water) the same hues Connie used to get with rainwater. Here's the palette, based on Connie's mix formulas:

In the first row (A through D) are the main colors. About 1/4 of the shawl will be painted in each of these colors, in order from A to D. Because Connie wants the colors to blend from one to the next, I was concerned about the transition between A and B. I mixed tiny quantities of equal parts of each of the possible blends so we could be sure the transitions would look good. So the second row are the blends, and I think A+B makes a nice (but different) brown from either D by itself or the C+D blend.



I put the shawl into a dishpan to soak in plain water, weighted with canning jars full of water. Once the shawl stayed under water without weights, I transferred it to a dyepot that contains a mixture of citric acid crystals and water (to avoid the vinegar smell...). It'll wait there until tomorrow, when the painting commences.

In the meantime, I've prepared the worktable with a sheet of heavy plastic, clothes-pinned into a series of troughs. The shawl will be laid down with about 1/4 of the length in each trough. The troughs are intended to prevent the slightly thickened dye from leaking from one part of the shawl into the others.

 More tomorrow!