Fabric Dyeing - Value Scales for three color families

This Value Scale is for the Basic Color family.

I have taken several fabric dyeing classes from Carol Soderlund. I have blogged extensively about them before.
Color Mixing for Dyers: Part I is Carol's class where you dye over 1000 color formulas. With these samples you learn how to mix any one of these colors to create the exact color on your fabric.

We each made a book with all of the colors samples.

After you paste the samples in your book you still have little bits of each color left so Carol created this page where we can paste up a value scale with the colors we have dyed.


This is the value scale for the bright color family.


This is the value scale for the earth color family.

I can not recommend Carol's classes highly enough. If you want to learn to dye accurately and SAFELY take a class from Carol. You will NOT be sorry you did.

http://carolsoderlund.com/

Tonight's puzzle will be the earth family as that is the color family that a sunset kind of girl is most comfortable with.

Sharing the work of other students in the class

I'd like to share the work of some of the other class members with you.
First I'll show the work of our family reunion group.
Carol really accomplished a lot of wonderful work.

Karen's work has a definite color signature. She even dressed to match it. Her black on white piece is stunning - too bad my photography leaves something to be desired.

Sorry that the ironing board and iron are in Pauline's photo, but anyone who works with fabric will understand how important these pieces of equipment are. Unfortunately her special work is dificult to see.

And last, but not least is Sue who also was very prolific. She came all the way from London to take Carol's class and attend our "Family Reunion". Yesterday I had a sideways photo of Sue but I've changed it and you can aso see her work so much better now.

Joan is another dyer who dressed to match her work or did she dye to match her attire? Figuring this out is like figuring out which came first - the chicken or the egg. She doesn't have it on but her sweatshirt matched the mauve in her work.

I don't have a photo of Ellen but I have a photo of here lovely work. She used some interesting colors and did some unique projects.

Barbara did an interesting piece of large squares. She Also also did some neat black and white images on fabric but they aren't visible in the photo.

I missed Meg but I'm glad I can show you her work. She did some really unique work

Sandra isn't here either but her work is. I wish I oculd show you a close up of the gold piece. The detail is great.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of Sherryl either. Her color sense and imagery on the top she was wearing was closely related to her lovely work.

I'm sorry I missed taking photos of the work of a few students in the class. It definitely wasn't because their work didn't measure up. I missed taking photos of some great pieces. I just somehow thought I had photos of everything but didn't. I'm sorry if those of you I missed are reading the list. In fact - if you are could you send me a jpeg and I'll add it.
I'm sure those of you who are interested in working with dyes can see why were were so excited to be able to take this class.

Carol's class is over and it was top notch

Our last day of class was Friday.
We learned so much more on the last day.
We learned why we did the "class quilt" and each got pieces of it to remember the learning experiences.
We also cut up and distributed pieces of each of the colors we dyed for the Sky Family.
Carol showed us examples of various experiments she had done to discover the effects of different variables in dyeing. This was so interesting. She also gave us hand outs so we could do some experiments on our own.
The last thing we did is share our work with the rest of the class and talk about how we got some of the results we achieved and how we felt about the different pieces.

This photo shows some of the pieces I created in the class. I was quite happy with most of them. I also learned what I should now do to add a little color to some of them without obliterating what is already there.
Carol spent a lot of time explaining overdyeing and the effect you get depending on the color and the value you choose. This was so interesting. I am glad I did not choose to overdye any of my work before she covered this.
A few of us had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant and then said our good byes. Since we live in various parts of the world we do not know when and if we will see each other again but we keep in touch via the internet.

This photo is of the group of us who originally met at Carol's Dyeing Part 1 class at the Timber Frame Barn in 2007. Since we were dyeing Color Families we called this our Family Reunion.

A beautiful day at the Barn

Today the weather was absolutely beautiful. I got out and walked around a little after lunch. I took some pictures of things on the farm I'd like to share.
This is one of my favorite art pieces on the grounds.

Another interesting group of art pieces are these cone shapes. I have no idea what they are. I think they are very interesting. There are several of them in various locations.

The trees are loaded with apples and crabapples.


The next photo shows the pieces we dyed to complete the "class quilt".

Tomorrow is our last day of Carol's class. We will be sharing some of the work we have done with the rest of the class.

Day 3 in Carol Soderlund's class

We had another great day in Carol's class.
We worked with thickened dye paste again.
Many methods of working with silk screens were covered today.
How to design and use thermofax screens was also covered.
Carol is a wealth of knowledge with so many different ways to use these tools.
The first image is layer 1 of one of my pieces.

I made some new stamps to use to put the thickened dye on my fabric and enjoyed using them. I used one of them for layer 2 of the same piece.


This photo shows a variety of pieces students are working on as well as some of the supplies students are using.
I am including several interesting images done by various students using some of the methods Carol has taught us.



I do not know if these images you see are complete of if they will add more layers.
I can't begin to tell you all the things we are learning in this class. Take a class from Carol if you ever have the opportunity. You will thank me for recommending it. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying her classes. this is my 4th class with Carol and I have never been in a class where there was an unhappy student.

Dyeing at the Barn with Carol Soderlund

Today was our second day at Nancy Crow's Barn in Ohio.
It was also the day after Carol Soderlund's birthday. No one knew yesterday was her birthday. When I realized it I got her a birthday cake with a candle. It was a muffin - but it's the thought that counts - right?
We continued to work on dyeing with thickened dyes today.
We also dyed the second round of our Sky color family.
Carol is an amazing teacher and we are all thrilled to be here and learning so much more about dyeing. We have a great group of happy talented women in the class. There are several I knew before the class but have enjoyed meeting all the new people.
I'd like to share some examples of the work we did the last 2 days. Most of these are only the first layer of color and design that will be applied to the fabric. Generally, each piece will have 2 or more layers applied to the fabric to make it a work of art. The following examples are the work of various class members.
Here is one group of fabrics on our design wall:
Here is another example of what we have been doing:

I have 4 pieces of fabric I am working on. I have no idea where they will lead me. At this point this is my favorite and I also spent the most time on it.
Here's hoping I don't do anything to spoil it!

We are also working on a "Class Quilt". Here are some of the pieces with the first layer of color.

Today we added the second layer of color to our "Class Quilt". We don't know what this will eventually look like but we have great faith in Carol. We know it will teach us many lessons.

Getting ready for my trip to the Crow Timber Frame Barn in Ohio

I thought I'd have everything packed by now. I'll be working right up until the time I leave on Saturday to fly to Columbus. Once I arrive I'll get my rental car, wait for my friend Sue's flight to arrive from London and drive to our motels in Pickerington.
Once we get there we have dinner plans which you'll hear about later.
So tonight I'm still packing and getting some boxes ready to send Priority Mail so I can travel lighter. I'll be there for 2 weeks. The first week I am taking Carol Soderlund's Color Mixing for Dyers Part II. The second week I am taking Jan Myers-Newbury's Shibori II: A Design Focused Continuation.
It will be a very intense, enjoyable and educational two weeks.
I have taken classes from both of these instructors before and they are both excellent.
I am sharing a photo of a quilt top I made from fabric I dyed in classes with both of these instructors. It is not quilted yet in the photo. I will be including this in my upcoming solo show.

When I made this quilt it was a matter of pulling out fabrics and letting them tell me what they wanted me to do with them. I'm pleased with what they told me.