Satisfaction!

Well, after allowing the scarf to almost completely dry, I decided to remove the rock salt, scrunch the scarf in a ziplock bag, and nuke it. Because there was very little moisture left, I put the mostly closed bag into a plastic container with about 2 inches of water for the steam bath. That upped the moisture level and kept the scarf from being damaged by the heat. Then a quick rinse in cool water with a few drops of synthrapol, a bath in hot water with synthrapol, a few rinses, a short hang in the bathroom, a quick press with the steam iron and... ta-da!

The silk salt actually did better than the rock salt as far as markings go. I couldn't see them very well until I had laundered the scarf, but I got a real nice 'freckled' look... not too much, just enough to add to the visual interest. I already have more candidates to experiment with! I

'ice-dyed' a scarf awhile ago, and it came out too pale, so I figure an overdye and some salt should perk it up nicely. And I have 2 scarves I tried to do batik on last fall, then steam after ironing out the wax, but they really don't have a lot of 'pizazz', so better to play with them than leave them hanging on the rack! I promise to post pix as I go!

Silk/Salt dyeing - second layer

After letting the scarf from yesterday's post dry, I scraped off the salt and found minor markings. I used light colored dyes, and silk salt I have had for years, and the result was not satisfactory overall. But I know from experience that sometimes, further layers or techniques can improve a project. So today, I mixed up some lemon yellow and bright green dyes, and pulled turquoise, royal blue and lilac from my stash. I also dug out my rock salt. Instead of painting on the new layer, I used an eye dropper to drizzle the dyes over the original layer of dyes. At first, it looked a little dorky, but since I have the stretcher system slightly elevated on one end, the dyes are spreading slowly over the surface of the scarf. I didn't saturate the silk, just left it damp. After applying the dyes, I sprinkled the rock salt on sparingly. Here is how it looks now, as it slowly dries in my garage:

I'll post pix when it dries, and decide then if I need to do more or if it's ready to steam set the dyes. I am also anxious to try using alcohol/water to create interesting effects, but not sure if I will do that on this scarf or save that for another experiment! More to come...