elainegrey

I am so pleased with most of the blue green dye project. Yippee. I couldn't wait for tea, but dumped them out in the tub to begin the laborious rinse process. Today i will rinse *and* scrub the tub *and* wash the Derma Smoothe peanut oil based medication out of my hair leaving the medicated shampoo in my hair for ages. I feel i have so much dye left. What to do with it?

The rust brown, so ORANGE, will go to dye the stained sheet along with the maroon brown that i will mix up when i get back. It's so orange, though. Christine likes orange, but i don't. Hmm, i wonder if i have a stained tablecloth. Orange for autumn could be pleasant.

I suppose i could dye my bamboo yard-wide miniblankets with blue and green. I could also try to dye the laundry basket. (Fiber reactive dye interacts with cellulose and so will attach to the rattan.)

I hope i feel like playing with dye after work next week.

I didn't play with the GPS or get camera equipment in order yesterday. That's the order of today. Oh, and a crochet project for the trip. I was thinking of resurrecting Mom's slippers. I don't think i'll finish them for her birthday in early September, but....

I thought of amaebi as i saw a late twenty to early thirty-something year old wearing an oh so ironic "college" t-shirt get into his BMW with it's "INVISIBL [hand]" license plate in a Wharton - University of Pennsylvania license plate holder. I have memories of Wharton students from my time at Penn,and associate them with a get-rich, me-first energy. Enven the Wharton professor who was going to help the Christian Association sell it's core-of-campus building created such a sense of antagonism with the University, that the deal with the obvious buyer got caught up in court cases and dragged on.... What is there to witness to Mr Invisibl Hand?

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I'm returning back to the grocery store shortly: the pharmacy was closed last night. Christine and i walked down town yesterday evening under the full moon, planning our meals through our first breakfast at the campground. We bought frozen yogurt from the hip self-serve place where you pay by the ounce. While pounding techno played i selected the oatmeal cookie gelato, the praline yogurt, and topped it with cinnamon and chocolate syrup. (There are tart flavors there, too.) We marveled at the crush at the established gelato store across the street, and then walked back to the plaza at the train station, where we made our grocery list on a park bench under the full moon.

The number of wandering minstrels on the street was impressive: what would be a lovely street performer costume for Christine to play Italian mandolin, i wonder.

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One item on the grocery list is flour, as i am going to play with a flour resist on the cardigan and t-shirt i died mostly red last year. You plaster the fabric, allow to dry, and then crinkle, creating cracks in the paste. Then you apply thickened dye, which seeps in the cracks, creating a natural fragmenting pattern.

I've also tied a small camisole in a irregular pleat around two conjoined soda bottles. It's my attempt at Arashi shibori inspired resist. I'm also trying again with tied small puckers -- most like tie-dye -- using the artificial sinew. Last year i used crochet thread and found the unbinding didn't leave me with one long marvelously mottled pattern, but lots of small bits. While i appreciated the subtle resist pattern, i'm looking forward to a stronger resist, this time

I do enjoy imagining how the chemistry of bringing the celulose, the reactive dye, and the soda together will work. Soak the fabric in soda and then dye? Add the soda to the dye and then apply?
Apply dye to dry fabric, to wet? All create different effects, none of which i'm particularly experienced with. I suppose i should find the video notes i made last year to review.

(And, oh, that's right -- i need to soak the fabric in soda water before applying the flour paste!)

Yesterday, as i tried to untie the crochet thread i used to tie up the dress/nightgowns for a faint shibori/tie-dye effect, i watched "180° South: Conquerors of the Useless". The subtitle comes from the apparently famous French climber Lionel Terray, who once referred to the adventurers who climb mountains as "les conquérants de l'inutile" (the Conquerors of the useless), presumably in contrast to the conquistadores who claimed continents for extractive industry.

The movie is lovely and pleasant, the drama -- what there is -- authentic and understated, the scenery gorgeous. ( A pretty movie that is an advertisement for the environmental philanthropy of two men ) Still, it was a nice background for picking out the shibori knots.

Early in the film there's a discussion about the value of adventure, the importance of things going wrong, the transformative nature of adventure. I spent time thinking about my dye project as an adventure: is it transformative? Is it worth while? Am i changed by it?

It's certainly not the same as a multi-month adventure, just a couple of days off.

I am extremely conflicted about the project at this time. Is it useful? Is it fun? Is it restorative? Am i learning anything? Why the hell am i doing it?

I've still clean up and some second round over-dying to do. I think i'm going to try to wrap things up this week: not do a trial next weekend.

It seems so much is clean up. Rinse rinse rinse, mess mess mess. I watch all the water, try to be as conservative as i can, but wonder about the water loss. I don't have a really good studio space. I worry about inadvertently staining the rug.

And getting good at this will take practice.

And i've so much else to do.

I ponder balance.