colorful goldendale

Last weekend I stayed with Pat Brim-Williams at her Goldendale home. The location was sublime—smack dab in the middle of a ponderosa pine forest.

On Friday we drove to our destination—a trip that took us down the south side of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge. Late that afternoon we cut and prepped fabric for dyeing.

Saturday started rainy but by noon was perfectly sunny. With our dye concentrates and soda ash solution ready, we headed outside to begin low-immersion dyeing. It was tremendous fun as we dipped, squirted and dabbed dyes on our PFD Kona cotton.

After rinsing and setting the dyes, it was time to iron the fabric. As I had dyed 15 yards, it took over three hours to press all the pieces. Thank heavens for movies on DVD!

We drove home on Sunday on the north side of the river—another memorable drive. The three-day trip was a non-stop pleasure. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

the stash

In D. Lisa West’s basement, we rinsed our dyed squares in her laundry sink and fixed the colors in two plastic bins. Then we ran all the fabric through the washer for a final rinse and the dryer for a light fluff. Two and a half hours later all the swatches were ironed.

Somehow we did not create any chocolate brown cloth. I thought that when we experimented with three or more dyes, we would make mud. Generally our fabric is bright, mottled and very appealing.

dyeing workshop

I spent today at Karen Williams and Leah Kaufman’s art studio, dyeing 30 fat quarters of cotton. We started by creating a series of tints and shades. Then we mixed secondary colors with two dyes. Our final lesson was creating complimentary color mixes.

Was it easy? Yes, because Karen had everything set up and showed us exactly how to get known results. She is like a scientist who has tried and recorded every color combination.

The day ended with experimental dyeing. In 24 hours I will see what I have created. That’s when I’ll rinse out my wads of damp fabric, set the colors, and iron my dyed cotton squares.

Karen Williams is a mixed media artist whose work revolves around fabrics, beads and thread. You can learn more about Karen and her art at skunkhillstudio.com.