Think Silk!
Saturday, July 28th, 2012Back in April, which now seems like years ago, I FINALLY got to take a class I’ve wanted to take for several years now: Carol Soderlund‘s dyeing silk class. Any time she has been teaching within driving distance of Maine, I’ve been booked to teach elsewhere. So even though this class required me to get home from teaching in Arkansas on Friday then get back in the car and head South on Monday, I jumped at the chance!
As always with Carol’s classes, it was fun, packed with learning, tiring, and did I say fun?
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk003](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk003.jpg)
Mooshing. That’s a technical term! In this case, mooshing in the blue dye….the third round! And even WET the colors are heavenly
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk006](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk006.jpg)
At Quilt Festival two years ago, Melanie Testa demonstrated using an old-fashioned ruling pen (like for drafting plans in art school) with thickened dye. I tried it, and you can see a sideways of my Queen Anne’s lace. I “inked” the outlines with dye, then will overdye and color later….maybe later this summer?
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk007](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk007.jpg)
We also got to try some shibori, alas with black. I’m not wild about the color, but maybe I’ll overdye with some blue and get a nice water fabric out of this… I do like the texture, just not the color. Bleah.
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk009](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk009.jpg)
We also got to try some deconstructed screen printing. A neighbor did this one… she definitely had the best colors and results… I’m not much for “surface design” stuff, but this was a great cloth!
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk011](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk011.jpg)
Lunch at the back of the classroom. ProChem brings in lunch–it is included in the class fee. We all sit together and pop up and down as need be to tend our fabric!
![2012.05.Blog.ThinkSilk012](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/2012.05.Blog_.ThinkSilk012.jpg)
And one more time I went by 266 Third Street, Fall River, Mass., where my dad and his family lived in 1918! So glad it is still there. I may try to find where they lived in 1910 via the census and go find that house, too… my Aunt Mary lived in that house (on the first floor apartment) until she died in the 1970s!
As always, I had a great time, ate too much, and wish I had more time at home to dye fabric! Maybe this winter?