email Youtube

Home
Galleries
Blog
Workshops & Calendar
Store
Resources
About
Contact

Caribbean colors

Hi all…. it has been a crazy week. My mom, who is 89, is not doing so well, so I’ve been trying to help her and care for her long distance (I’m in Maine and she’s in California). That means I may not be able to post as often for the next month or two, so if I appear to vanish, I’m OK…just swamped with life. It looks like everything is going to work out and that she will be able to move to Maine in a month or so. Keep your fingers crossed.

Yellow in buckets

In the meantime, I have some glorious color to share with you! In the pursuit of perfect color for my art quilts, I’m engaged in a color-swatch-swap (try saying that three times fast! pphhhttt!) with Carol Soderlund and some fellow students. The 8 students were in Carol’s totally awesome dyeing workshops (I’ve blogged about them in the past) either this past October or in August 2007. We are in Australia, The Netherlands, Denmark, and across the US, and are each dyeing a different color family. I chose to use a warm yellow, a red  and a blue, and I may have one of the best color families known to procion MX dyers! The photo above is of the first round of dyeing . Here is the yellow after it got out of the dye buckets, washer and dryer:

Yellow, dried

Then, you add red:

Red overdye

Then turquoise:

Turquoise overdyed

Overall the values (light to darkness) are light… the “black” is really a deep eggplant… the colors of the fabrics in the dyebath was awesome. If I take the darker range and go deeper by having more dye powder per ounce of fabric, I can get some really intense blues…. the colors remind me of tropical fruits (citrus, papaya, mango), flowers (hibiscus and fuchsia and orchids), foliage (lush moist as well as arid climate plants) and the sea… from a stormy day to deep Caribbean ultramarine to those glorious aquas in the shallows….

I’ll add more pictures once everything is ironed and sorted by color range….. WOOOT!

12 Responses to “Caribbean colors”

  1. Marie Says:

    OMG These are just absolutely TOO incredible for words SB. WoW !!!! I’m drooling.

  2. Wil Says:

    They look gorgeous! I am almost done with my yellows, only one more bucket to stir.

  3. joyce Says:

    What wonderful colors you got! If Carol ever does a workshop near me (unlikely) I will definitely take her class. I love the idea of an exchange. How not to love having so many luscious colors to play with!

  4. Beverly Says:

    Luscious, yummy colors- I wish Carol would write a book so I could at least experiment on my own with what she teaches!

    I’m sorry that your mother isn’t doing well- you certainly have had more than your share of health related stuff to deal with the past year. I hope she is able to make the move to be close to you soon, and without problems.

  5. Judi Says:

    Beautiful colors, can’t wait to see them in person.

  6. Jacquie Says:

    What a wonderful way to brighten a winter, Sarah! I smiled just seeing them.
    Hope things continue to work out with your mom.

  7. Fitzy Says:

    Take care of bidness hun, we’ll keep the coffee hot.

    Love, love, love your colors!

  8. Maureen Says:

    I LOVE your colors. They remind me of a fiesta. What kind/size are your buckets? I also took Carol’s class and we used 5 gal. buckets for the full immersion, but yours look smaller.

  9. Sherryl Says:

    Luscious colors!!! I am signed up for Carol’s class in June and I cannot wait. Hope all goes well with your mom.

  10. anne Says:

    hi, I am a dyer also and have taken Carols class, could you please tell me which mx yellow, red and blue you used?
    you can see my blog at mylife-annerp.blogspot.com

  11. lisa Says:

    Yes please – which three dyes did you use?

  12. Ann Says:

    I would love to know what three dyes you used?