eye candy

Color Study: Why Red?

| ellenanneeddy

I’ve just finished Little Blues! I’m delighted with this quilt. It took me a while to get it finished off. In that process, on a whim I added some red silk flowers to the background.

Why red? Why not orange or blue or white? I did try those. But red was it.

I really think it’s worth the while to put up your color decisions on a color wheel. Just how you can see how they relate.

The color wheel gets a bad rap. It’s old fashioned, it’s boring, we all know how colors are made, it’s incomprehensible…. It’s still the best way I know to show the relationships between colors. It shows how colors are created. But most importantly, it shows how they react to each other.

The farther colors are apart from each other, the more tension there is between them. And like every good soap opera, more tension means more excitement.

At which point, you need to ask, where is this quilt going? If it’s in a baby’s bedroom, you might want to keep the tension and excitement to a minimum. But for a gallery? Bring on the excitement!

I was surprised when I put the colors up on the wheel. I didn’t realize how far around the wheel I had gone. But as you can see, the red zings across from the green. I don’t have much in there, but it wakes up a piece that has that sleepy analogous color thing going on without it. Not much. Just a handful of red silk flowers.

I consider using the whole color wheel a visual trick of sorts. It wins awards, and it’s showy, but color needs to be the focus of a piece for that to work well. But this almost full-color wheel is rich, satisfying, and just red enough to get attention.

For more information about color theory check out Color Theory: The Tug Across the Wheel and Thermal Shock: Shocking Color Choices.

Noncommercial Part 2: What Are You Going to Do with All that Dyed Thread?

| ellenanneeddy

If you’ve been following my posts, you know I did some thread experiments on dye day.

Experiments are always just that. Might work, could work, did work, did not work. All information.

But I worked with threads that are NOT workable in a commercial teaching setting, largely because of the way they’re put up in manufacture. The best way to dye thread is in (reasonably enough) a dyers hank. That means it’s in a flat loop, usually confined by a paper label or by twisting into a skein. Do all threads come that way?

  • Sashiko thread
  • #3 pearl cotton
  • #20 pearl cotton
  • Frizzle
Definitely the weird stuff. But good though.

No. No they don’t. But since I’m not producing for class or for travel I can fuddle around with the weird stuff. The trick is to get it in the end into a form where you can get it on the machine. Between a ball winder and a swift I can hank up anything I like. (See Noncommercial blog post.)

Here’s some of what I tried.

# 20 Pearl cotton, dyed and undyed
Well, even I know that won’t work. But look at the colors. The thread and fabric are dyed from the same shades.

# 20 pearl cotton fits in the needle as well as the bobbin! Since the cone didn’t feed onto the machine I filled a bobbin for thread from the top.

I love the Frizzle I dyed!

Look at it as branches for a tree. I have the cotton string I dyed here too, but the frizzle definitely wins.

Do I love the new threads I dyed!
They are to dye for!

Will I experiment with new threads? Well there’s all that thread that didn’t arrive in time for dye day…. Stay tuned!

The Dance of Dye: Seeing Your Fabric Born

| ellenanneeddy

You’ll need to forgive the way I look. There’s nothing glamorous about dye day. Or really dye week. Prepping fabric, dyeing fabric, washing up, washing out and ironing are all really blue collar fun. You sweat and get messy. Never mind that I’ve missed my last three hair cuts.

My friend Lauren Strach used to come to visit, partially for dye day, but mostly for the day I ironed. Because that was the day the fabric came out of the mangle.

Hand dyed fabric is pretty. But like all of us, it likes to dress up. It’s nice hanging out to dry. But you really get to see it when it comes through the mangle, pressed, starched and pretty. It rolls out like a beautiful woman floating down a staircase.

Three pieces


Of course the real moment is when you get to see it with hand-dyed thread

Lauren is a fabulous fiber artist, who explores a number of styles, in amazing ways. You’ll find her work on Instagram.

I’ve been privileged to watch her work grow. And she would come and drool with me over the freshly ironed new hand dye. She lives in Oregon now, and I in Galesburg, IL and all of that would take a lot of arranging to do again. But I treasure the memory of watching her face as the fabric would roll out, pressed and precious. And the things she would do with it.

You’ll want to see more of Lauren’s work. It’s a journey in color, texture and joy.

You might ask why I was mangling in the garage instead of the new glorious studio! We had misbehaving mangles. Don found me a lovely mangle that lasted just long enough to blow black smoke and powder on the floor immediately after it was plugged in. We took it out and found that new amazing IronRight. It stopped opening and closing about five minutes in.

I had a long cry, and we waited a day to plug in my old mangle from Porter and she worked like a charm. You bet I sang to her!

This is Don companionably sitting on his mower in the garage while I ironed my fabric. He had to sit somewhere. Did I mention I really like being married?

I do dye fabric for others as well as myself. This was a good dye run, and People regularly ask me to dye what they want for a particular project. But I do have some fabric from the last dye run I would be willing to sell if there’s an interest. Contact me and I’ll set up a video phone conference if you wish to pick some out for yourself.

You can see the flower already started here.
ellenanneeddy@gmail.com
219-617-2021
1055 N. Farnham Street
true
Galesburg, IL 61401
USA

Noncommercial: You Can’t Sell and Experiment

| ellenanneeddy

One of the nicest things about my new studio is that it’s set to produce supplies for just myself. For years I’ve dyed pearl cotton. It’s beautiful and as a mercerized cotton, the colors are spectacular. But if I wanted to sell it to students I had to standardize it. I never could take the time to try different kinds of threads that didn’t come in a dyer’s hank.

Why? What’s the difference? A dyer’s hank is simply a looped ring of thread. It’s easy to dye it evenly. A twisted ball is much easier to handle, but it can’t be dyed evenly. You can move one to the other. It just takes to stinking long to do it commercially. And it’s hard to make every skein even in yardage.

Hanked Thread

So now that I’m not making thread for the general public, I can really experiment with threads that aren’t in dyer’s hanks: Sashiki thread, cotton boucle, several sizes of weaver’s pearl cotton, cotton hemp, and cotton yarn. It’s a bit heady. I’ve been stuck with one cotton thick thread. But the world is wide.

In light of that, I bought two thread wranglers and I’m wondering where they’ve been all my life. These are tools weavers, knitters and spinners know well. But not every quilter works with them. Unless you need to deal with thread. Lots and lots of thread.

Swift and ball winder

I’ve worked with a swift before, but this is lighter weight and much less bulky. This is my first time with a ball winder. I’m in LOVE!.

My 27 yard hanks of pearl cotton wind into a ball like these.

  • dye hank
  • index card lable
  • yarn ball

The swift holds the hank, while the ball winder winds it into a tidy little pull skein ball. I’ve slipped a bit of cardboard through the hole to keep it from unraveling.

Later this week, I’ll be dyeing thread and fabric for the first time in the studio. I’ll keep you updated on how the new winding tools work with that.

Well, I’ll Be Dyed!

| ellenanneeddy
Three Point Landing

One of the not-so-secret elements of my work has been hand dyed fabric. I’ve dyed fabric literally since I was ten. I was working with melted crayons and Rit. The result almost made my father cry when he saw the midden in the sink, but I’ve been hooked ever since.

Why? Because nothing starts better original art than original art.

With the new studio in place, I’m ready to dye. Well, almost. We still need to freshen up the wringer washer and test the new mangle. But I have a dedicated kitchen space with a drain in the floor. What more could a girl want?

I put up Three Point Landing because it’s so dependent on the fabric. It’s a one piece background with around 15 colors in it. The colors make it all glow, sky, water and waterlily. The background, just one piece of fabric, makes it all happen.

When I dye fabric for a particular piece, I usually dye three pieces for the one I’ll use. One can be backing and one can be accessory, perhaps. But all three of them will be different in lovely amazing ways. And if I’m lucky, one will be just right.

Are there commercial fabrics like this? Somewhat. Caryl Bryer Fallert does a line of fabrics that simulated hand-dye quite well. But it’s reproduced. Which means it’s not a one of a kind.

I always have some really beautiful fabric that I don’t need to keep. I sold it in classes to students, because it’s cruel to tell them they can have results like yours without giving them similar supplies.

But there are always people who come back for hand dye. It’s beautiful, The colors are vivid. it’s needle ready, starched and shrunk, and no one has a piece just like yours. Each one is unique.

My first dye run will be naturally smaller than usual. But I am taking orders for people who would like fabric. Fabric is roughly 44″ wide, mercerized cotton. It comes in yard, half yard, and yard and a half lengths. I can either send an assorted box of fabric, or hand pick for you from what you tell me you want.

The fabric has a light source in it, usually. Built in sun or moon light spots that drive the visual action of your work from the start.

  • You can see the flower already started here.
  • Light pours through greenery

  • Greys from black
  • browns from complementary fabrics

Even blacks, greys and browns are vivid and exciting.

But if you ask me, I will dye what you want to your specs.

Fabric is $24 per yard. I ask that you buy at least $48 dollars worth of fabric. I do pack each box with an extra yard or two so you can pick and choose. You can send back what you don’t want. If you buy the whole box you get an extra half yard free.

I will have some extra fabric from the run, but I recommend that if you want fabric, email me or call me at 219-617-2021 and I will dye especially for your needs.

I expect to by dyeing around April 24th. Who wants fabric?