Snow Dyed Fabric - The Big Reveal!

We received over an inch of snow the other day at our house. Just enough for me to gather enough snow for to snow dye some fabric in the garage. I posted on Monday the pictures of my 5 yards of fabric being snow dyed (and how they looked like huge snow cones). Well, here are the results. At first, I wasn’t too thrilled with the results, but I have learned not to make judgments until after I washed the fabric twice and dried it. Because, first impressions are always wrong. The fabric I think looks the worst, becomes my favorite, what can I say, so I just don’t get my hopes up or down anymore and look forward to the wonderful surprise that awaits me. The part of the process I love the best is when I iron the fabric, that is when it really talks to me and tells me what it wants to do. With each picture, I’ll tell you what they told me!
For those of you that are just now following my blog, I blogged earlier this year about the snow dyeing process. See my March 31, 2010 post "Snow Dyed - Hand Dyed Cotton.

The Reveal……………


This first piece is gorgeous, I know I should save the best for last, but I just had to show this one first. This piece started talking flowers, as I started ironing, flowers started popping out, iris and peonies. Purple and yellow iris, pink peonies, do you see them? My hair stylist asked what I was smoking when I showed the pictures to him, I don’t smoke anything! Just high on life, fabric and color.


Oh, I love these colors. Reds, pinks, orange, yellow, bright cheerful colors. This one started talking flowers too, yellow and pink iris again, or maybe some butterflies. This would also be a great piece to use for appliqué. It has such a great mixture and movement. Do you think I’m anxious for warmer weather and that is why I’m seeing spring and summer flowers?


Piece number three started out as a disappointment. The top section just didn’t take the dye as well as the middle. I don’t know if it just didn’t get soaked well enough with soda ash before I placed the snow, or if the dye just didn’t migrate over to it, but it has a hint of the robin egg blue, chartreuse and pink. The colors are better in person, I just couldn’t get the color to adjust right today and I wasn’t up to braving the cold to go outside and take it. Brrrr. Anyway, I can see using surface designs and textures on it. The middle part reminds me of pictures I’ve seen of stars exploding. When I started thinking about stars, then a universe piece started forming in my brain...we’ll see where it goes. It just may go into either my Etsy or Artfire shop. Any takers out there?


Piece number four, now this is a close runner for my favorite. Rainbow explosion, the green is very lightly mixed in the middle. The way the colors just explode into each other is invigorating! The snow, ice crystals really did a great job. This piece also shows great potential for flowers and butterflies too. Do you see them too?


This last piece was dyed with piece number two, so the colors are the same, but the way the fabric took the dyes is a little different. At first I didn’t see flowers as much as the other piece, but when I looked at it again I saw gladiolas and some roses. I also see this piece as a great piece for appliqué. Each artist visualizes differently, so tell what the fabric saying to you.

Some of these pieces will be one of my online shops, StudioJules on Artfire or StudioJulesArt on Esty . So, if you interested, check my shops! Each piece is one yard.

Happy creating everyone and I hope these bright cheerful colors warm up your day!