Sunday 8 March 2015

Solar Dyeing

A few weeks back I decided to have a go at solar dyeing some roving in a jar which had water, vinegar and colour added to it along with some merino roving.  As the dye needs heat to set it the jars were left sealed out in the hot sun until the water in the jars went clear.  I am very happy with the results which I achieved.




Gradually dipped this roving into the dye bath.



laid the roving side by side in the container and poured over mixed dye solution to achieve this one.



Randomly placed this roving in the container but still poured the dye solution over each third.

Here they are just sitting in the sun.  I ran out of big glass jars so just used a small plastic container but covered the water/fibre mix with gladwrap and then popped the lid on.


5 comments:

Monica said...

Wow, Katherine, this is looking really fun. And you are getting beautiful results! I have been wavering about dying fabric. Too many projects already! But, it will be interesting to see how this spins up.

Jillian said...

Terrific colours, Katherine. Looks as if the process worked a treat.

Sisbabestitches said...

Oh these have come up so lovely! Almost makes the hot weather a positive...almost ;)

Sisbabestitches said...

Oh these have come up so lovely! A use for all the hot weather, how wonderful ;)

Anthea said...

What a really interesting process Katherine... & such pretty results... well done...

What will you do with the dyed fibres now?