RESIST DYE WORKSHOP

Again with permission from Chad Alice Hagan, let me introduce you to the exciting technique of resist dyeing wool felt.  This two day workshop is held in her home studio in Asheville.....check here for upcoming classes.

Taking this workshop couldn't be easier because Chad supplies EVERYTHING.....seriously.....the hassles of finding the correct supplies are not a concern here.


First we began by felting our wool before we dye it. Wool on the left is how it appeared before I felted it.....notice how it has shrunk (right) after felting.

 After my arms had a good workout felting, we moved onto making a package of our felt.  This was done in a variety of folding methods.  Chad has tons of resist tools for students to use.  Here she's clamping book binder clips onto a felted piece. The theory is that the resist item will block the dye....which in turns provides interesting designs.

 The felt has now gone through one dye bath (the color yellow in this case.) The original resist binder clips were removed, the felt refolded and new resist items were added in preparation for dye bath # 2.

 We had a choice of 4 new colors for the 2nd dye pot.  We each had 14 pieces of felt to work with, which allowed everyone to experiment using new combinations of colors each time.

Here's the result after this piece was dyed first with yellow, then turquoise, then finally green.  It isn't necessary to resist dye a specific number of times.  I was satisfied with the design for some of my pieces after the 2nd dye pot treatment.  Some seemed to nag me to improve upon the design by repeating the process a 3rd time.


Seriously, this was like opening Christmas presents.....you simply never knew how the piece would turn out!  I'll share more photos of my 'presents' tomorrow.....you will definitely want to take this class!