Monday, November 10, 2008

Let's start a dye - dialogue or a dyealogue.


Ok, let's talk color! I think about color, well most of my waking hours! I think most rug hookers are always looking for a good background color. My favorite is a black/brown. One of my favorite ways to get brown is by mixing plum with any yellow or gold. This is Cushings or any dye you choose. If you want it darker use a bit more plum and if you want a very warm shade of brown use a bit more of your yellow or gold. Gold will make it very warm. Try it first by using a 1/16 of a yard of any wool. Get a glass jar, fill it 3/4 full of water and heat it in your microwave for about 3 minutes. Carefully remove it, set it in your sink and mix in your dyes, then add your wool. Let's use 1/64 of Plum and 1/64 of Yellow for a light to medium brown. Use equal parts 1/32 of each for a darker brown. This is good way to use up extra purple dye!!!LOL!!!

I like the basic Cushings brown's but also like unique ways to get to brown. It tends to get rid of the blah...oh no not that color again!!! LOL!! If you don't have purple or plum, just mix a blue and a red together. I would use say Sky Blue and Scarlet. But this is the fun part, just get in that dye box and pick 2, it is only a small piece of wool... Once you have the dye combo that you like, dye larger pieces. I added the picture of my Abe Lincoln to show you his beard. I had a yellow/gold wool texture, I dyed it with plum and came up with his beard color. So you can do this on an undyed piece using yellow and plum or over a previously dyed piece using the missing color. No reason you could not take a piece of purple wool and over dye it with gold to get a brown. More dye-alogue soon!

4 comments:

Plumruncreek ♥ said...

Love all your dyeing tips Cathy!!

Joanne said...

Hey Cathy - I have pots and pots of wool soaking as I type - going to put on an old t-shirt and go start dyeing from your dye book! Haven't had a moment to try them yet - but i have camp tomorrow and i picked a bunch of colors from your swatches! Thanks for all the tips love that! Also wanted to mention when i was up at Shelburne this week - I was talking to the ladies at Searsport - they had these brown wool shawls for sale to cut up and use for hooking - Gabi had taken the dark brown and over-dyed a purple and it was a color to "dye" for - i have several pieces of as-is dark brown wool and i'm going to try your Red Plum over it!

Alice ~ Folk Art Primitives said...

Thanks for the dye suggestions ~ I just ran across your blog and will be checking in, for sure!!
Alice

bittersweet said...

Cathy,
I am using your dye formulas and so happy i ordered them. I can't wait to try the br/blk. you just talked about. So thanks for doing your book.
Kaye