Well, it's come to this...

As usual, my project list keeps growing... I came across a dry-erase board I had from my former life, so decided to put it to good use, keeping track of my to do's:

Here's what is going on right now:

Work in progress for my Mixed Media class

Rust dyed fat quarter I'm working on for a swap

Line drawing for an art quilt of the Slot Canyons I am starting

Start of the fabric stash for the Slot Canyon quilt
tie-dye for my upcoming craft show, and a bunch of rusty bits waiting to be used on my rust dyeing fat quarter
It's always something!

Obsessed!

I know... I know! I'm on a tangent with the rust-dyeing, but I loooooooooove the color of rust! And I needed to figure out why I wasn't getting good impressions with some methods, but was getting them with others. I finally figured out that the cloth and metal items didn't need to swim in a vinegar bath! Yesterday I soaked a cloth in vinegar, wrapped several bolts with metal wire, and left it in a margerine tub, occasionally spritzing with water. Today it spent the day on the deck, and when I unwrapped and washed, I got the results I had hoped for! Here it is:

The bolts and wire I used had been gathering rust for a couple of weeks now, what with my failed attempts and all. So the secret here is 'less is better' on the vinegar front!

Ooh! I like it!

Yesterday I started rust-dyeing 2 new pieces: the first, I wrapped around the rebar again, and wrapped metal wire around the top and bottom to hold the fabric, and wrapped my piece of chicken wire around the middle. The second, I wrapped around a metal 'c' bracket, and wrapped the chain around the fabric. The latter hardly registered any rust, even though the metal pieces have been rusting nicely. I put that piece in a margerine tub, doused with vinegar, and put in a plastic bag out on the deck to heat today. The rebar piece stayed in the laundry room, propped up in the rinse sink all day. Here's the rebar piece:

The markings on the left are from the rebar. The right and bottom staining came from the rebar but in the form of runoff I think. It's like the vinegar washed the rust onto the fabric from the rebar itself. Also, on the lower right are some 'resist' marks which may have come from the wire wrapping. I'm really encouraged by this piece. Oh, and the fabric is a different weave than my previous attempts. I dug it out of the stash, and think it might be kona cloth. I may jump in and try this on cotton jersey next, just to see how it would take the rust. Too many ideas, not nearly enough time! Oh, and the second piece has been sent back to the tub with bolts banded into it, and washers too... tomorrow, the unwrap!

Rust and mud dyeing pieces

Well, I wrapped up my 2 experiments today. The mud-dye piece didn't come out the way I thought it would, but I'm not totally disappointed... it has interest, and I may do some more experimenting in that direction. What I had hoped for was more of the 'red-rock' color, but I guess our soil isn't red enough.

Here's the final on the rust-dye experiment:



This is the complete piece

The 2 pictures above are closeups of the rust marks of the top picture. The best marks came from the rebar and the chain, but a subsequent session with metal washers did not make any marks that I can see.
What is interesting is that the pieces of metal had no rust on them when I started last weekend. But now they are rusting nicely. I just need to work on getting a good contact between the fabric and the metal. Also, I have been using muslin, and I think I want to try a fabric that is a little more absorbent, mabe a looser weave. I can see more rust play-dates in my future!

Rebar's the ticket!

I just unwrapped my fabric from the rebar and got good results so far! I decided to re-wrap and add to it, but here's a picture of the progress from this morning:
Meanwhile, I checked on my mud-dyeing experiment, but it didn't come out very well... either I don't have enough minerals to change the color or it hasn't stayed in the slurry long enough... anyway, I put it back in to 'batch' some more... will check back later on that.
While I was at it, I did some experiments with using leaves and thickened dyes to make impressions on fabric. Some worked well, others didn't, but then I rolled out another color over the fabrics, and that enhanced the images considerably. They are 'batching' now, so I will post pictures when they are rinsed out.

Rust-dyeing experiments

Last weekend, I tried my first experiment with rust-dyeing, but the results were disappointing -- hardly any rust! So I washed the fabric and put aside the metal objects. I looked at the metal on Friday and realized it had grown some rust! So I put everything together again - dampened fabric, metal objects, salt, vinegar... even put a heavy object on top to increase contact between the metal and the fabric. About 18 hours later, here is what I have so far:

As you can see from the second shot, the chain wins the rust award! Everything else is just incidental, but I have put the objects in a container with water, vinegar and salt in the hope they will grow even rustier. I was really hoping for more from the chicken wire, and may try wrapping fabric around a pvc pipe and wrapping the chicken wire around that. Meanwhile, the fabric has been wrapped shibori-style around a rusty piece of rebar in the hopes I can do even more! Stay tuned for updates.

Meanwhile, I went on a leaf-hunt in the yard, and came up with several specimens I plan to use for screening on fabric later:

Some of these are from cultivated plants, but several are wild. I can't wait to see how they screen!