Splattering and Drizzling

As with all of these "Getting Wild" lessons, I'm going to assume you're comfortable with basic dyeing techniques. If not, take some time to review those lessons. And like the previous "getting wild" lesson, remember to keep an open mind. You may not like every technique you try (I certainly don't), but you'll learn which ones you may want to pursue in the future. And remember, you can always overdye fabrics or become very popular in your guild by giving them away. It's never a total loss!

Make up a batch of any color dye in any strength you want. (Like most of the getting wild techniques, these are excellent lessons to try at the end of other dyeing sessions to use up your leftover dye.) Prepare several pieces of PFD muslin, white-on-white muslin, or previously dyed pieces, and have them damp and ready to dye.

Because we'll have dye "in the air", I'd strongly suggest doing this outside or at least covering your work area with plastic. For less than $2 you can get a plastic drop cloth at the hardware store -- well worth the investment.

You will also need to keep the fabric damp. You can either add urea to your chemical water, cover your dyed fabric with plastic, or put it in a zipper bag. (If you put it into a zipper bag, you will need to work with small pieces of fabric or risk the dye from one area touching another.)

Basically, all the techniques here will involve using different methods for putting the dye onto selected areas of our fabric in fairly random patterns.

First, lets do drizzling. It's easy, requires no extra tools, and is a favorite with my quilt group. Put your damp fabric into a plastic bucket (2 qt size is great). You will probably need to lightly scrunch your fabric to get it to fit. Now take a small amount of dye and drizzle it over the fabric. (Like when you drizzle icing onto a bundt cake.) If you stop before you get dye accumulating on the bottom of the bucket you'll just have the drizzled pattern -- if you keep adding dye you'll also get color on whatever fabric is touching the bottom of the bucket. Try it both ways and see what you like.

The next technique I call squirting (but if you have a better name, let me know!). I lay my damp fabric out on plastic (I do this outside if it's not windy). Take a plastic squirt bottle (Dharma Trading sells some that work really great for this) and fill the bottle with dye. Squirt designs onto the fabric -- try parallel lines, circles, curves, even write your name. If you get too much dye on the fabric, it will puddle on the plastic underneath and blot out your design. Try different amounts of dye to see what you like.

Splattering is just that. Lay your damp fabric out on plastic (again, I do this outside), and dip an old paint brush into the dye. Shake the brush out over your fabric to splatter drops of dye onto the fabric (you can do this with a wide variety of tools.) This one is messy, so wear your grubbiest clothes and shoes!

You get the idea -- experiment with different tools, methods of application, and amounts of dye. With abstract art like this, there's no right and wrong, so feel free to experiment away.


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