Silk/salt dyeing

Well, I have finally got my act together and am beginning to learn how to dye silk scarves and use salt to create interesting patterns. Thanks to Kim Barron's great blog post, I learned how to create a stretcher system, so I have my first attempt 'curing' in the garage:

I must admit that 'painting' on the dye instead of pouring or squirting was a bit of a challenge for me. I'm not thrilled with some of the blobs that are forming, but I'm going to see it through and find out how the salt works, then try some more. I'm sure it will become easier as I go along, and I promise to post more pictures as I go. As I recall, my first few tie-dye shirts were not works of art either, but I kept at it, so this is just a learning curve! If you're reading this and have done silk/salt scarves, I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have!

Inspired to experiment

Two of the bloggers I follow regularly - Cynthia St. Charles and Connie Rose - have recently posted about their dye experiments. Cynthia recently tried snow/ice dyeing, and Connie did some comparisons between dyeing dry and wet fabric, presoaked in soda ash solution and applying the soda ash after the dyes were applied. In both cases, they used a soda ash solution with salt added, which I have not tried yet. So I decided to do some experiments similar to Connie's with salt added to my soda ash... i have previously posted about my ice/snow dyeing experiments.

All of today's pieces were scrunched and placed in small containers first.
Here are my results from today's batch:

The pair above were processed as follows: Left sample I soaked in the soda ash/salt solution for 1 hour, then applied the dyes and batched for 1 hour. Right sample I dyed the fabric dry, let set for 1 hour, then added the soda ash/salt solution and batched for an hour.

The next pair were done as follows: both pieces were presoaked in warm water for 30 minutes; excess water was squeezed out, then scrunched and placed in small containers.

Left sample was soaked in soda ash/salt solution for 1 hour, then the dyes were applied and batched for 1 hour; right sample was dyed, set for 1 hour, then soda ash/salt solution was applied and batched for 1 hour.

In all cases, I used 1 1/2 ounces of dye, and 1 1/2 ounces of soda ash/salt solution.

I have to say that adding salt to the soda ash has created much more interesting, distinct markings than my regular method with just soda ash. Cynthia e-mailed me to tell me she normally used salt to achieve better markings, and I'm sold! And I like seeing the different effects that can be achieved by varying things like starting with wet or dry fabric, pre-soaked or soda soaked after dyeing. Thanks ladies for your inspiration!