Overdyeing Textures

Talking About Textures: A Look at Over-dyeing Plaids & Checks By Gene Shepherd This script is the property of Gene Shepherd and can only be copied for the personal use and files of Internet Rug Camp members. It may not be reproduced for distribution without the written permission of Gene Shepherd. Scene 1: Welcome to this session of the Internet Rug Camp. Today we're going to be talking about textures, particularly about over-dyeing textures. I don't know anybody who doesn't like textures or who isn't always on the look-out for some interesting textures to use in their rugs. For example, you can fill a motif like this with something solid, but it's more interesting to throw in a little bit of a texture. You can outline it with something solid, like I did here, and that's fine; but notice I like to go back and forth with textures as often possible. Even when I'm filling in and I just change to a little bit of a texture and a little bit lighter piece of wool, it brings a pop to the piece. We love textures, and unfortunately we can't always find the right textures, so we need to learn how to over-dye them. And I thought it would be fun, in this particular session, just to talk about some of the possibilities and show you different ways that you can tweak textures to make them work for you. Scene 2: Here are six different pieces of textured wool that I just happen to have laying around in my studio. A lot of people would be very happy to find any one of these textures, thinking, “Well, I can use them just the way they are” and you certainly can. But, unfortunately, I would like to get more out of my textures than just the way that they come. So, I thought it would be worth our time to just look at some different textures and see what would happen if we over-dye them in a variety of different colors. Grey and white hounds-tooth: Obviously this generic gray and white hounds-tooth plaid from Dorr Wool is a standard, open slate. You can take this wool and do just about anything you want with it. I've dyed it red. I've dyed it pink. I've dyed it green, various shades of green. I think I've dyed it every single color of the rainbow that you can think of. It is nice to have a bolt of this on hand because I know it's good wool. I know that the white color is always going to accept whatever I over-dye it with, and that the gray is going to take on the color of whatever I am using, and that it's going to work together to give us nice shadows. Light golden tan check with subtle green & gold little stripes: For example, in that Persian that we were looking at just a few moments ago, this is one of the gold textures I used to outline in that piece. So, this is a good bit of wool to have around because we know it's going to work for us. Consequently, when I found this piece of wool the other day, I certainly bought some of it because it is very similar to this wool in that it is of such a light nature that it's going to play a very good host to almost anything that you'd want to over-dye this piece of wool with. And, again, it's very light. These nice little dark stripes—one is a kind of a green, one is a bit of a gold—they're going to be good hosts. Now, of course, probably the easiest thing to over-dye it with is something that is from this general family but darker; and actually this would be much more useable to me than this piece would because I like the color. I like it having a bit of a spot on it, and I think it's going to be interesting. But, I was also able to make this, and just with a simple bath- I think I did about a yard at a time. I didn't stir it very much. I like it a little bit spotty because it's actually going to give me more texture by having some highs and lows in the colors. Here's another version of this. Again, it is so light that it easily accepts just about anything that you would put over it, and I really like the way this particular piece of wool works. I've dyed it in this color (blue). I've dyed it in pinks. Here's another version of it. You'd probably be surprised to think that it started out as this particular one, but I actually threw a piece of this in when I was doing one of my “Surprise Refrigerator Dyes,” and you can see, if you have seen that particular video—which, if it's not on the Internet Rug Camp right now, it will be soon—but I just threw it in with something else and it came out with all of these nice variations. Again, when I'm looking at a piece of wool to buy so I can over-dye it, I'm always thinking to myself, “Is it going to accept colors?” Now, just one point of discussion. If using this natural just the way that it came, a lot of people would just throw it in the washing machine and let it felt up a bit and then start using it. I never do that. I always boil all of my wool in water with citric acid for an hour because I want to make sure that they're properly set. If I'm dyeing them, that automatically happens. The washing machine doesn't get them that hot. I don't know if new wool has been set properly or not, so even if I'm going to use it this way, I still treat it like I would if was going to dye it, by simmering it for one hour in water with citric acid. That way, I know for a fact that I'm not going to have any trouble with that wool. Light teal, gold, rosy brown check: Well, here's another piece of wool that I really like, but it's sort of pushing the box a little bit because, obviously, it is not a blank slate like this wool is a blank slate and this wool is a blank slate. This is anything but a blank slate. And if you get a piece like this and you might be wondering to yourself, “What in the world can I use to over-dye that? I don't have any use for it in this particular way; just what can I do?” Well, let me give you just a clue. For example, what dyes go into the existing piece as it is? Well, obviously there's kind of a light teal color - a bluish teal. There's obviously kind of a gold color, and then there's this much darker brown. Now, I'm not big on browns usually, but it's kind of a rosy brown. So, what I did when I started experimenting with this is I took a gold color that was a little hotter and more into my sense of color, and I actually think this is 122 Mustard (ProChem), probably about ½ teaspoon to a yard, and I simply over-dyed it with that. I knew that it would make the golden color a much deeper gold. I knew it would make the blue turn more into a green; again, blue and yellow make green, and so I've got kind of a yellowy-green here. And it also just deepened that little bit of a stripe that runs through there. But, besides accentuating the gold tones already present in the tweed, you can also take the blue tones and accentuate them with a dye. And that's what I did with this particular piece, and I was really quite happy with the way this piece turned out. I especially like the little bits of purple that just sort of came up with the foam as it was being dyed; and, again, I can think of all kinds of uses I would have for this. The blue accentuated the blue; it toned down the gold, and it sort of deepened and turned that browny color into more of a rosy kind of a stripe. I just think that's beautiful, and I love the way this particular piece turned out. Of course, the third color we talked about is this sort of brown color, and I've already told you I'm not going to want to dye that brown, probably, but because it's sort of a rosy brown, I thought, “Well, let's dye it with a rosy color.” And, again, it perfectly accepted this. My blues, with the addition of the reds, turned into a bit of a purpley color. The gold accepted the red and sort of changed to kind of a brighter red, and then the red color—while it's there and it's making the stripes, and it is noticeably different, particularly if you're closer to it—it just was accentuated and turned this piece into, well, something that I think is quite attractive.

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