Saying goodbye

Before it's too late, I want to let everyone know that the blog known as "And Then We Set It On Fire" will stop posting new content the last of this month.   Thankfully, they are leaving the blog intact so you can peruse it at your own leisure.  They are a fabric blog that deals mostly in surface design and fabric dyeing.

How they got the name of the blog:

A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Some of the topics they have covered include:

Rust

As many of you frequent visitors to my blog know, I love rocking horses and I love rust.
 One lady who taught about rust was very informative.  I don't usually say that about people who rust fabric,

because they often forget the safety issues involved with rust.  This woman knew her stuff, and I was quite grateful.

I have experimented with rust on fabric

and on paper.  Both require special handling.

Eco Dyeing 

Along the lines of rust dyeing is Eco dyeing.    I've had ho-hum success,

marginal success

decent success,

and phenomenal success with this technique.  I started using an alum mordant shortly after I made these pieces.  Somehow, I don't see much difference using versus not using mordants.

Shibori Dyeing

Although there were many examples of shibori dyeing on the Fire blog, no one seemed to create shibori discharge dyeing.  I wrapped the fabric, then discharged it (removed the color) using bleach.

Sadly this fabric was in bleach less than a minute.  Even so, it turned a rust brown nearly as soon as it hit the bleach water.  Just goes to show that black can turn gray, brown, rust, or gold, depending on the fibers used in the weave of the fabric.

These were created using fabric spray paint I won in exchange for a tutorial showing various shibori folds.

Most of the dyeing on the Fire blog dealt with permanent dyes you had to mix with harsh chemicals.  I used Staz-on reinkers and got these.  No, the color didn't wash out when I laundered the fabric.

Snow Dyeing

Again, I don't believe in harsh chemicals to dye my fabrics.

Rather than use chemicals, I turned to food coloring

and dye inks.

They turned out better than I anticipated.  While they were melting, I thought they looked like snow cones in which all the syrup was being sucked out.

Corn Syrup Resist

This is a horribly sticky technique, but instead of harsh dyes advocated by the Fire blog, I used Staz-on along with my corn syrup.

One thing I can say about this technique is, you can do it in the winter.  Unlike flour, oatmeal, and other kitchen products you use as a resist, which must be removed outside, this washes out easily in your sink and doesn't clog your drain.  It's like washing a dish that had syrup left on it.  These two fabrics have been washed and ironed.  I think they turned out super, even if I didn't get the freezer paper ironed on as well as I had hoped.

Flour and Oatmeal Resist

Again, I called on my Staz-on to provide the color for these.

After these were rinsed (outside) and laundered, but prior to ironing, I hung them on my rail for a photo of the various resists.  They are from left to right: flour, oatmeal, oatmeal, flour, flour.

Another flour resist, it was my favorite and I used it as soon as it was dry.

Turmeric Dyeing

Another kitchen item I experimented with was turmeric.  I was so proud of these pieces, even though I used far too much turmeric and alum (the mordant) in the dye bath.

Sun Dyeing

For years I believed the hype that you had to buy a special dye in order to sun dye.  It seems the ONLY place you can buy it is on the internet.  I decided to see if I could use my fluid acrylics to sun dye fabric.

Even though I rushed the process and removed the rocking horses too soon (something I didn't do the first time I sun dyed fabric), I was still quite pleased with how this second journal cover came out.

Other dyeing projects I have completed include grape juice, onion skins, blackberries, tea, and coffee.  I look forward to continuing my unique way of dyeing, because I get good results and don't use harsh chemicals that must be mixed, then removed into the environment.

Although I love the Fire blog, it is painfully obvious I didn't learn much from their blog posts, and am not the surface designer or dyer their design team members are.  I did want to pay tribute to them, though.  And I will miss checking the blog every few months to see what is new.  So, good bye Fire blog.  Your new posts will be sorely missed by many who want to learn about surface design and "real" dyeing practices.