Snow Dyes!

It is December 30 and I have less than a week to get all of my samples done for the new classes I am teaching this spring. I do not think anyone in my community knows I have a blog, so I feel safe in posting my pictures.

I belong to an online dye group who I think invented snow dyes. In fact one of our members who inspired us all to try it, recently published an article in Quilting Arts Magazine on snow dyes. We are sure proud of her!

I find that my snow dyed pieces look like Monet gardens--somewhat mid to soft tones. It doesnt matter if I use super strong dyes, I seem to get a really nice muted look on pieces. It contrasts nicely with my soda soaked deep parfait pieces I love to make.

I think all of us do the snow dyes somewhat differently. Some dye the snow, then add it on top of fabric. Others put the snow on top and then dye it. I even have a friend who lives in a part of the world where there is little to no snow and she uses shavings from a snow cone machine (Wil). Here is how I do snow dyes.



Gather dyes and get a syringe. I use about 110ml per fat quarter.



Put fabric (that has first soaked in SA for 20 minutes) in a small container, lay a layer of snow on top--about 4 inches, then lay on the dyes with the syringe In these examples I used older dye—some was at least a year old.



This is one of the pieces. It is wet in this photo. I am not happy with the look and I think the age of the dye played a role in the lack of sharp detail. I find that snow dyes, as opposed to other methods of dyeing, gets fabric to have a soft edge but with crazy sharp edges if one uses lots of colours. I think I will redo these pieces tomorrow.

I have a batch dyeing in a different manner (drained over a sink), with new dye and we’ll see if that makes a difference.

4 more classes to get going!