Sadie, Day 2

With the wax totally dry, today was the day to paint the background.  First, to mix fresh dye concentrates.  Don't you just love my red dye studio blender? I do!



These are the colors I use. From these I can mix any color and variation I need or want.



My normal dilution for the concentrates  is 1tbsp dye powder(except turquoise and blacks...they get 2 tbsp)  and3-4 tbsp urea to 1 cup of water.  But when I am planning to thicken the dyes with print paste for detail painting, I increase the strength of my concentrates.  So today I mixed 2tbsp dye powder and 4tbsp urea to 1 cup water. Except for the turquoise I used 3 tbsp dye powder; and the blacks I used  4tbsp dye powder....urea and water amounts are the same.

This concentration will give me good,deep saturated colors when mixed with the print paste.

Now for this piece, instead of pre-treating the fabric with the soda ash, I will be adding it to the print paste/dye mixture.  I mixed my print paste yesterday... I use the print base mix from Dharma.  Then I made up my "chemical water" (urea plus water) that I will use to thin the print paste when needed.



So then I was ready to paint the background.  I use insulation foam boards covered in plastic to lay the piece on.  I used dye concentrate mixed with equal parts soda ash solution and added water. The colors I used were cobalt blue,cerulean blue, sky blue, turquoise, grape, and kelly green.

You can see on the right side where I did not have a solid closed shape with the wax...oops!  But I learned long ago, to incorporate the "oops" into the design.  In this case, it's the stem that  breeched, so adding a little yellow when I paint it will convert it to green...problem solved!  There is also the odd drip here and there, but again since dyes are transparent, the colors can easily be altered in the next step.  The background painting was a serti technique.



The whole thing is now covered in plastic to keep it warm and wet for the next 24 hours to fully batch the colors. After that, I'll wash out the excess dye and the wax, dry it and then be ready to start the detail painting.

And today  I got the pearl cotton I had ordered.



This weekend, these will be dyed in variegated colors in a variety of colorways!