Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Soft Rebellion

Click to enlarge!


These were the final pieces that I decided to make from my collection. Everything is hand dyed.

Well I have my final shots back from the photographer, and I am incredibly pleased with the results.
Many thanks to Deanna Palkowski, Negar Hooshmand, and Matthew Burditt for their immense help with making the shoot go smoothly.

Now, a little bit about the collection. I started off wanting to make something completely structured, based off gothic architecture and, more specifically, specific churches and the architecture of those. As you can see... I strayed pretty far from that. I guess the closest remnant of that initial inspiration you can see here is the use of lace, which I was originally going to use as stained glass panels, and the wine-dyeing methods. Eventually the collection took a turn towards surrealism, with artists such as Max Ernst providing the inspiration for the colour palette.
Max Ernst , "Ein Mond ist guter Dinge" , 1970

Once I discovered different dyeing methods, they quickly took over my inspiration and I was trying everything and anything I could get my hands on to dye fabric. It was a fascinating learning experience; I am looking forward to continuing experiments with natural dyes and seeing what else I can come up with! I did use some synthetic dyes as well (the blue in the last dress, and the yellow dye, as well as the print in the first dress), but given more time (and money for test fabric... yikes), it would be interesting to experiment some more.

Coffee dyeing process- note that these shots were taken to look pretty, I didn't actually try to dye fabric in fancy bowls 

Using Setasilk paints and kitchen sponges to create the yellow dress print.


-T

3 comments:

  1. Hand dying makes me so excited! I have a dress that has the most gorgeous cut, and the most hideous (though very pale) print. I'm dying to dye it (see what I did there?) but hesitant to make the leap. Any suggestions?

    I wandered over here from 2X and like your blog a lot.
    Take Care,
    Crystal

    awakemychild.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Crystal! I am actually working on a DIY dyeing post right now (my project is in the wash!) that will be more in depth, but my #1 recommendation is to make sure your dye is appropriate for your fabric. There are different dyes used for natural and synthetic fibres, and using the wrong one will mean the dye doesn't hold as well. I would also make sure the fabric is wet when you dye it (no one told me that for my first project, it came out very uneven), and give it a good wash before hand. Happy Dyeing!

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete