Mad Hatter Scarves

Last year, when Alice in Wonderland came out, I made a Mad Hatter scarf that was purchased by a friend in Missouri.  Recently, I was asked to make another one by someone who is preparing a Red Glove Review costume for the Mad Hatter.  The center scarf was sent to her.  But I love this design and made a couple more at the same time using a soy wax batik technique.  Black is a difficult color for silk dye, if you use the common Procion dyes rather than a custom silk dye (which I didn't have in black).  You get a dark purple range of colors, and the bright yellow hardly takes overdye.  But it gives a bright and varied colorway.  These scarves are available in time for Valentine's Day, $18 each including shipping if you email ktibbits at lrec.org .

Osage Orange Dyed Silk Chiffon Ladies Scarf

Silk Scarf, dyed using Osage Orange

Dyeing using natural dyes is just an unpredictable adventure.  Here is an amazing piece.  I was dyeing a pair of bamboo custom socks for a friend in Oklahoma Food Cooperative, and had this osage orange dye made up so I thought I would test the results on silk and had a chiffon scarf that I could use.  The socks came out buttery, khaki and sort of lighter than I would have preferred.  (One can never be very unhappy with bamboo socks because they are just incredibly soft and comfy.)  But the scarf came out a rich yellow.  Actually, this outdoors pic doesn't show how bright and golden the color is.  Its darker yellow than lemons, and has subtle shading.  It reminds me that no two fibers will strike color the same.  Protein fibers always give more pow.  And though it is fussy and hard to work with, causing lots of waste and errors that cannot be corrected because the silk is delicate... it remains my favorite medium because there is always a surprise.

Cherokee Syllabary Cherry Silk Scarf

Here's an interesting new design.  I made this silk scarf using syllables from the Cherokee language.  I won a benefit auction for a used working Nacho Cheese heater, and converted it to a soy wax heater.  I keep the was there all of the time, and when I am planning to do soy wax resist batiking, I flip the switch.  Like a double-boiler the water heats the wax to a low melt, and I don't have to fiddle with the dangerous microwave in my utility room-slash-art studio.  I rarely work in reds, but was making a peppermint swirl tiedye tee for a custom order and had prepared the soy wax resist lettering in advance.  This is made using analine dyes of 3 blended shades of red, so it has shading and is not just a solid vat red.

Most of the clothes in stores is made from cloth which was vat-dyed.   The cloth goes thru a batch of dye and is highly agitated (although not mad ) in order to achieve a consistent monotone of color.  If you've a friend who tells the same joke over and over, you can appreciate how I feel about solid monotone colors.  It is just boring.  It is done because vat dyeing looks better when fabric is dyed before the clothing is constructed.  Or, only after clothing is constructed does nonvat dyeing "look right."  Basically, its easy, quick and cheap to vat dye... if you're doing millions of, ie, yards.

Much more time-consuming and thus expensive is anything ombred (ohm-burred) where the colors shift like watercolor, or tied and dyed as in tiedye and mudme.  This scarf was time-consuming because of making each syllable and its pronunciation.  (Not all Cherokee Syllables are there.  My chart shows 13 rows of 6 columns and some columns have 2 syllables as in Ga Ka and Dla Tla.).  The dyeing itself was rather simple compared to some dyes I use which are prepared with exotic stuff like inner bark, heartwood, fungus, bugs and the like.

This sweet cherry scarf is being listed at Island Retreat on etsy.  You will find a link on the right, perhaps to this very scarf if it is listed.

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Mudme Natural-Dyed Scarf

Mudme Natural Dyed Scarf

Mudme is a Thai technique for making great multi-colored tiedyes, by coloring bound objects which are then removed.  You can see I used a roundish shaped object (a rock) for the tie on this one, and instead of the traditional multi center, I used a soy wax resist to keep the white silk.  It is an imperfect process, and that is what makes this work so very intriguing.  Each scarf is a work of art, unlike any other.  There are so many uncontrollable variables which are interdependent.  For instance, the Madder Root dyestuff I was using had been reheated several times and was almost dust and twigs in the bottom of the pot when I sat it outside.  Then it rained and I thought for sure I'd get pale tones because the root was both exhausted and diluted.  But no.  You never know.  This one came out bright and just the color of fresh salmon.  Was it because oak flowers had fallen in?  Who knows!  There is a huge amount of serendipity in the process, and that's fun!

Silk, hand-dyed with natural madder root using vegan soy wax resist in a nontraditional mudme technique.  This scarf will be for sale at Oklahoma Food Coop and perhaps on etsy.  To buy it you can notify me by email.  $18 and that's a bargain!

Sanskrit Gibberish Scarf

Soy Batik Silk Scarf

I can't write in sanskrit, so I just scribbled something that I thought seemed a little bit like sanskrit when I was doing the soy wax batik resist for this scarf.  Here's sort of a how-to:  Start with a silk scarf and prewash it.  I like to give mine a strong scrub in the washer, but avoid soap or detergent.  Let it dry flat or hanging.  Then it is ready for the resist.  "Resist" is a term used for making part of the fabric where it won't soak up any color.  You melt soy wax and apply it to the scarf.  Where ever the wax soaks in, it will keep the fibers from taking any color.  Next, apply alum.  I keep a batch of alum made up for this purpose and made mine a year ago, so I don't recall the recipe.  It can be looked-up online.  Allow your article to dry in the air.  You can see already that this process takes several days.  The next day, place your scarf in the dyepot.  For Rose Madder as in this one, I made up a dye batch several days ago.  I happened to leave it under the roof dripline and it got some rainwater in it.  Every item and every dyebath is different, so there is always a huge range of possibilities .... all of which are uncontrollable.... when you do this.  You can gently and slowly heat Rose Madder Root dye bath, but don't let it boil.  It should steam and simmer but not boil.  Boiling is very bad for silk.  When you've achieved the color you like, turn off the heat.  Next day it will have cooled, and you can squeeze the dye out of the scarf and hang up the scarf some place on a towel where it can get bone-dry.

  

By now, you're going to start seeing clumps of soy wax flaking off, but that is OK.  Now, for the ethical question:  Do you wash it in the washer in a lingerie bag, or hand wash it in the sink?  Either way, use hot water of about 140 degrees to melt the wax.  Choose to do this in the drain you would like to stopp upp.  I like to alternate, hoping that there's enough routine family traffic in those drains to avoid a bad plugging.  Allow your silk scarf to dry completely.  There are two alternative methods for the step of ironing away the remaining soy wax.  You could place the scarf between layers of tissue paper (white.... not purple) and iron on the silk setting.  Or you could gum up your iron anyway by not using paper to absorb the wax.  I use the latter method (having taken a vow of ironinglessness many years ago which I have faithfully kept).  But if you actually use your iron like an ironing person, then don't be like me.  Otherwise your spouse will have strange blobs of what only you know is soy wax on his shirt, and you'll feel remoreseful but never admit you done it.  This code of silence can damage even the strongest love----  I know.  Four husbands and I am still making mistakes.

Now your scarf should be colorfast, clean and ready to wear for some quirky adventure..... geocaching?  Time travel?  Visiting a client in jail?  Probably best not to wear such a scarf to jail, as it would make a fine hostage leash if things went badly.

This scarf is for sale, $18 and can be purchased by emailing ktibbits@lrec.org .  It will probably be available thru Oklahoma Food Cooperative and on etsy soon, so you might look for it in one of my shops by clicking on one of the images in the righthand margin of this blog page.

Cedar Apple Rust Fungus Scarf

 

Cedar Apple Rust Fungus Scarf

For some reason, this picture refuses to permit itself to be centered.  Maybe it is because the scarf comes from way off in left field.  I mentioned to The Oklahoma Forage Ahead Yahoo Group that I was using natural dyes, and moderator (and forage guru) Jackie Dill wondered if it would be possible to use those bright neon orange "starballs" of cedar-apple rust fungus for dyeing.  I'd never considered it, although I have a funny story about hunting for dyeing mushrooms.... so I'll digress:

One day Dennis and I were going to split the yard-mowing chore.  He did his half and turned the mower over to me.  I had only made one sweep of mowing down the hill when I ran across some interesting-looking mushrooms under the peach tree, so I stopped mowing and started getting them ready to see if they were dye mushrooms.  It turns out that they yielded a pale golden dye when extracted with 100-proof  grain alcohol.  I got so distracted that at the end of that day, my mower was still down in the far end of the yard and I never went back to it.  He now kids me about that.

Anyway, on Saturday it happened to be perfect weather for gathering cedar-apple rust fungus, and I had plenty on some little cedar trees that had popped up in my former garden spot, so I made up a batch of dye and this interesting scarf is the result.  It has a parchment or marbled look, and is made of sheer habotai silk.

It was set with alum and heat, so I think the color will be permanent... but it is my first such experiment thus I can't guarantee it to be color fast after extended periods in bright light or harsh detergent.  Best to just hand wash gently and dry it on a towel.  (It was machine washed thoroughly to remove any traces of the original material--- although I'm sure the vodka did its magic in sterilizing it, also.  

This scarf will be listed for purchase with Oklahoma Food Co-op in the May order cycle, $18.  If you'd like to buy it for Mother's Day, email ktibbits@lrec.org and I'll take it off listing and send it to you.

Adventures in Natural Dye Methods - Rose Madder Scarf

Silk Charmeuse Scarf

Soy Wax Resist Batik,

Hand-Dyed in Natural Rose Madder

Oklahoma Food Coop is full of fun people, and this month among my co-op orders was a request for natural-dyed bamboo socks.  I've dyed bamboo, and it is my favorite type of sock because these socks wick better than acrylic but have the same level of softness.  Like cotton, only better.  So, I was up for the challenge to create hand-dyed socks using Madder Roots.  Trouble is, every fiber takes dye differently, and with natural dyes the results vary from wildly unpredictable to extremely unpredictable.  The socks made from the same batch of madder roots were a softer pinky salmon in final colour.  I had hoped to list this scarf earlier during co-op's order cycle, but with taxes and all I just tossed it into the Madder Root for an experiment.

Silk scarves are tough for a couple of reasons.  Long skinny things don't wash by machine very easily.  Um, silk hardly is machine washable at all because silk is delicate.  It must not get too hot in the natural dye batch, which has to simmer but not boil over 2 hours in a process that takes about 24 hours from start to finish.  Add batik wax, and that's not only slow and likely to give a resist failure... but also clog the plumbing with wax.

Those are just some of the reasons that I was so pleased to produce this first natural dyed scarf from madder root and soy wax.  It has a delightfully uneven shadowy color tone, and the wax held up fine.  (No comment on the plumbing.  I'm the plumber these days my own self.)

This gorgeous silk scarf will be for sale in time for Mother's Day on Island Retreat... click any item in the Island Retreat Etsy gallery to see everything there.  It will be posted in a few days, or call me for direct purchase 918 797 5016, about $18. 

Madder Root is a natural plant root.  It doesn't seem to be indigenous as a Cherokee dye plant... Cherokees used a different root which is rare and sacred with a beautiful flower.  I don't dye with the Cherokee red plant because it is reputed to be a cancer remedy and I think it should be preserved in the wild for this more important purpose.  Dyeing clothing and accessories takes plenty of roots, unlike dyeing basket reed which takes far less wild flower medicine plant roots.  I like Madder because they say you can twist the shade depending upon what you add to the roots.  And I've heard it does not require a mordant.  I use Alum to presoak and Cream of Tartar to balance the PH so the molecules form a chemical bond.  You may have Madder Root in your paintbox, for it is the precursor to Alizarin Crimson... my favorite red in oils.

Today, Madder isn't used because analine dyes have taken the place of these older colors.  I love it because I know it is a part of the color rainbow of centuries past.  Its use dates back to the Pakistan area B.C. and is common widely around the world as recently as the 1900s.  How nice to know that women in Chinese silk wore this color for more than a thousand years!

Adair County Foundation Pieced Crazy Quilt

Adair County Foundation Pieced Crazy Quilt

See how old silk neckties were splayed out to make some of the strips on this quilt?  Fabrics are summerweight, such as silk, taffeta, crepe and cotton.  Some of the strips are edged in crow's feet embroidery.  I'm guessing that the ties in this quilt are from the peachy days of the 1940s or 1950s.  Some of the pieces have stamping or tags on them.  This quilt was purchased from an antique store at downtown Stilwell in the 1990s. 

Look carefully, and you'll see that there are actually blocks, about 16 inches square, containing the stripped pieces.  On a solid piece of cloth about 17 inches square, the strips or angles of silk and satin were sewn.  The seamstress would sew down one strip facing the previous strip (sides together) then flip the newly added row down and keep adding rows from corner to corner.  Then the block could be squared-up and sewn together.  Women could make lovely lightweight summer bed toppers this way--- and this is such a bed topper.

If someone would like to help me date the fabrics, I'll post detailed pics.

Citrus & Raspberry Charmeuse Silk

 

Citrus & Raspberry Charmeuse Silk Scarf

I have mixed feelings about silk.  I love the texture and it is divine to hand-dye because one never knows what will happen.  It is unpredictable--- or maybe I just have not worked with it enough to know what to expect.  I've almost never had a bad experience with it.

But then, it is made from the destruction of silk worm cocoons.  I've bought them before, the pecan-sized white cocoons that would pass for papier mache.  Unwind the threads or tear them apart, and inside is a withered little caterpillar.  That's the creepy part.  How can something so beautiful come from a background of destructiveness?

So yes, I do wear silk sometimes.  And I work with it professionally as a textile artist.  But somehow the ugly little secret about silk's origins is always there as a sadness in the back of my mind.  Shifting to vegan products is certainly a possibility.

This gorgeous silk charmeuse scarf is big and wide.  I'll be listing it soon at etsy, if I haven't already.  It is $15.

Mad Hatter Scarf, for Alice in Wonderland

I'm a big fan of Johnny Depp as an actor, because he brings so much depth to his roles.  Thus I'm in major suspense until Alice in Wonderland comes out, in early March (about the 5th).  Again he teams up with Helena Bonham Carter, who was just delightful in Sweeney Todd.

So here, we tried to make up costumes for Halloween last fall, based on the film trailers that had just come out for the movie.  But alas, a costume error on my part for the Red Queen costume plus dreadful weather and not enough time... and we gave up our plans.  However, I did manage to simulate that great Mad Hatter bowtie in a china silk scarf.  It was batiked with soy resist and then hand-dyed.

I am going to be listing this great little ditty at my Island Retreat etsy site when I get around to it.  If you'd like it, email me at ktibbits@lrec.org .  It is $15 and can be hand-washed in warm water and towel dried.

I love to hand-dye custom pieces, so if you have an inspiration, just let me know and I'll make it up for you.