Snow Dyeing Experiment

So.... I wake up this morning to this....

It was still lightly snowing, Jake had a blast making fresh tracks all over the backyard and bouncing around like a gazelle!  Look at the bird feeder!  It was about half full two days ago, apparently the birds knew that this downfall was going to happen and stocked up when they could. Don't worry, I've refilled it for them.

And yes, the first thought that came to mind was.... "I can try snow dyeing today!"   I had purchased the items I needed from PRO Chemical and Dye a few weeks ago, but of course we haven't had much snow fall lately, in fact, it rained quite a bit to the extent that most of what we had left was ice.

Good thing I bought those bolts of muslin from Jo-Ann's the last time I was there... one bleached, one unbleached, 44" wide and 15 yards on a bolt, for $30 a bolt.

First step... cut three one yard pieces of bleached muslin.

Soak in soda ash water for at least 10 minutes... done.

Placed the fabric in three individual pans (unfortunately I didn't have any plastic tubs to use, so used my roasting pans).  Set them outside for about a half hour so they could partially freeze.

Mixed up the dyes... done.  Yellow, red, emerald, bubblegum pink, indigo blue, ultra violet.

Next, fill up the containers with fresh snow... best snow was on top of the truck... safest too... no "yellow snow" or "surprises".. lol

Ready to add the dyes:

First one - lots of yellow with some red to try and get an orangey fabric.

Second one - emerald green with a good dose of yellow.  I want a nice bright green so we'll see how it works.

Third one - here's where it'll be interesting... ultra violet, with some indigo blue and just a few swirls of bubblegum pink. :)

Supposedly, certain colours in the dye line will separate into their component colours.  So all the dyes I purchased are varients of the primary colours.. therefore, they should all "bleed" well.

I'm going to keep watch on the process, the melting of the snow.  In total it should take about 24 hours for it to all melt and the fabrics to come to room temperature.

Then it's a matter of rinsing each individually, thoroughly, to get the remainder of the dye out, then setting it in a wash with synthrapol to set the dye, drying and ironing.

I'll take pictures of the stages.... can't wait!