ROUNDUP - FOLLY BEACH DYEING MARATHON

 In between indigo dyeing, we eco-printed.....ahhhh the ups and downs of this unpredictable technique....

After soaking this length of cotton fabric in alum....I sprayed the back side of each leaf with iron/water and rolled tightly onto a wooden dowel.

It was then wrapped tightly with string, followed by shrink wrap...also tied tightly....processed in iron/rust/vinegar water bath for about 2 hours.  It's cooling here before removing the string.

Alas.....nothing good happened.......big sigh....

But, all was not lost.....I over-dyed it in indigo....see why we love indigo so much??

 Not deterred.....I positioned leaves onto a piece of wool, sprayed tons of iron/water on and covered with a 2nd layer of wool and clamped wood pieces on each side.  In order to fit in the pot...the 'package' needs to fold....so in this case, individual sections of wood worked better than 1 large piece.

Now....this is more like it!

 Not all eco-print attempts failed....Judy transferred sumac onto water color paper.

Kate used a variety of leaves, positioned between folded sections of cloth.

 You'd think we'd be prone after being outside on our feet all day.  Oh no....not this group.  Judy brought along supplies to play with wax batik designs.  The wax is beginning to melt in this mini electric pan.

 Various tools are used to apply the wax.

The pieces were indigo dyed the next day....The bottom one is right out of they indigo pot and has yet to turn blue.

Our three days came to an end.....and we take away wonderful fabric, good memories and extra pounds.