Ice painting

I read somewhere a long time ago about painting outside in below freezing temps.  I decided to try it recently during our ice storm.  I used a piece of light weight canvas and hung it outside for a few hours.  Then I brought it in laid it on a rack and painted it with Stewart Gill fabric paints.  The fabric thawed so quickly it was really not icy while I was finishing the painting.  But, I am not going to paint outside during an ice storm so my ice painting is not quite authentic.You can see the ridges made by the rack in the photo.  This is before I ironed it to set the paint.

My snow dying process

The two red pieces and the purple/blue/red  a couple of posts below are all made from a white sheet an exchange student left at my house a couple of years ago.

I bought the supplies from Dharma Trading company

I prewashed the fabric in Synthropol.  Then I soaked it in a soda ash solution.   While it was soaking I prepared my urea and salt chemical water.  I laid the fabric out on several different types of racks.  The article I read in Art Quilting stated that she used a piece of plexiglass and tilted it into a pan so that the fabric did not sit in the excess dye.  I used two small pieces of plexi tilted in my favorite pan (it is designed for fish cleaning and sold at sporting goods stores).

I also used a small baking rack over a dish pan and a shoe box sized plastic box.  In the bottom of the plastic box I placed some bubble wrap with really large bubbles.  I also slanted this so the dye would run down.

I then put the wet fabric on the racks and covered  it with snow.

I mixed the dye two tables spoons to a half cup of chemical water.  Then poured it on over the snow.  I then covered it with plastic bags and left it overnight.

The next day I sprayed all of the fabric with warm water, wrung it out and hung it to dry.  I will wash it with synthrapol in a few days.

Blue on black and white

You can get a good dark blue with this process.  I made up a chemical mix of urea and table salt and mixed it with the blue dye.  I just added half a cup of water to 2 tablespoons of dye.

I laid the fabric out on a rack slightly tilted and then covered it with snow.  Then I covered it with plastic and left it overnight.  I rinsed this fabric with warm water (I have a hose with a sprayer in the basement and I just sprayed the water on)  Very little actually rinsed out and the final rinse came out clear.

Snow dyeing results. day 3

I am figuring this process out now.  I am using fiber reactive dye on cotton soaked in soda ash.

Snow dyeing results

This is the sumi paper while it was being dyed and after it dried.  I used some radiant rain and some alcohol inks which gave it much deeper colors than the cloth.

Light weight muslin.

Some heavy weight silk fabric. 

More snow dyeing process photos

Snow dyeing

I have been reading about snow dyeing and since we have piles of snow all around I decided to give it a try.  I just used what I already had around and it wasn't the best dye for the projects.  Most of my results are quite faded looking.  I am ordering new dye to try to get better results.

This is what the snow dyeing process looks like.  You put down your fabric (or paper) on a rack and then pile on the snow.  Then you pour on the dye.  As the snow melts the fabric gets dyed.