This weekend and next I am teaching nuno felt scarves. I had to dye silk for bases and wool so there would be a good variety to work with.
For the scarves I used the scrunch method in mason jars. To do this you use fiber reactive dyes. You have to pack you scarf blanks tightly into a container. Next use 2 colours, pouring one then the other over the silk so that it is covered. After 10 min to an hour you pour the sodium carbonate over the whole thing. Then leave it for at least an hour but really can leave it till tomorrow if you need to. When you rinse you get great mixed patterns. For complete instructions go to Paula Burch’s amazing dye site. http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/lowwaterimmersion.shtml
I also renewed dyed wool supply. I spent 2 days with a large pot dying in 100 gram lots. this is two thirds. of the wool I split one third off each ball and fluffed them out for the students to use.
There are a couple of colours that are from using up the dye left in the pot after doing a colour. I hope my student like the colours I picked.