Thickened Dye Painting

I tried to do some thickened dye painting earlier in the week. When I washed out the first two pieces they came out very pale. I assumed it was the age of the dyes, but decided to let the remaining pieces "batch" for a few more days just to see what would happen. I needed the space yesterday to paint a lining so I rinsed them out. Amazingly enough the colors were strong! Not exactly fabulous work, but I can see using them as a base for some printing, stamping, etc. As you can tell in this piece I was working with similar colors from leaf green to aqua, turquoise, bright blue and blue violet. I just laid them out next to each other hoping they'd blend. Still too much white showing for my taste and the blue violet was quite red. Hmmm...

These are different aquas and turquoises with the blue violet between them.

On this piece I put a bunch of puddles of thickened dyes on one side of a piece of fabric (the left obviously), then folded the other side on top. Once plastic had been placed on top of it I pressed them firmly together. Not quite mirror images, but interesting.

This piece was wet first then the dyes laid out in trails. They blend outwards nicely. I like this piece, even though I have a dyer's dislike of white showing through.

This one involved patches of all the colors I used. I like the feeling of depth it evokes.

My interest in thickened dye painting has been renewed and I will do more when I have time. Right now I'm up to my elbows in packing for Chicago, preparing a fashion show presentation for Wednesday night, grading my new jacket patterns and working on a new idea! Does life get any better than this?!

Lisa