T Stands For Grape Juice

 

Today I'm at my kitchen table.  I won't be drinking, but I will be dyeing.  This post will also take the place of my Second Thursday Tutorial. 

As with all my tutorials, I'll begin with the materials I will use, starting back left and working clockwise:

 

Wax thread

Grape juice (with a "use by" date in 2007)

Various fabrics to dye, none of which are 100% cotton

Grape juice (with a "use by" date in 2007)

King size pillowcase, 100% cotton

Scissors

Glass bowl 

Before we begin the dyeing process, I want to say a little about "fixatives."  If you want to dye something using grape juice you want to wash (like a tee shirt, blouse, or skirt), you will need to use a fixative.  Since my dyed projects will be for my art quilts, which will NEVER be washed, I'm not concerned about fixing the dye.

You have two choices of a fixative when dyeing with any fruit or veggie.  That includes grape juice.  You can either use salt or vinegar for this.  I should point out if you are dyeing wool felt, you must use the vinegar fixative.  There were several sites on the internet that included the recipe, so I will just share what I learned:

SALT FIX: 1/2 CUP SALT TO 8 CUPS COLD WATER
VINEGAR FIX: 4 PARTS COLD WATER TO 1 PART VINEGAR

Bring your fixative mix to a light boil, then add your fabric. Simmer your fabric in the fixative for at least an hour.  After an hour or so, carefully remove your fabric from the simmering fixative. Allow the fabric to cool slightly, then wring it out completely.  Your fabric is now ready to be dyed and you can be assured the dye will not wash out the first time you launder your fabric.

The first thing I did was deconstruct the cotton pillowcase.

I took this closeup so you could see the beautiful detail in this pillowcase.  I hope it shows in the final product, too.

 

Now it's time to tear a piece of fabric to be dyed.

I never realized how long a king sized pillowcase is.  That's not the full length, either.

I decided to twist the fabric in the hopes it would be mottled after it sat in the dye.

Since I have practically no grip in my finger, this was difficult.

Even harder was adding the wax linen string in places the twist wasn't evident.

It was time to add the various other fabrics to the bowl,

along with both bottles of old grape juice.  Now it was time to wait overnight and allow the grape juice to wick up some of the other fabrics that were not completely submerged.  

 

Those of you who have seen my other tutorials using kitchen ingredients will remember that I caution to keep your dyeing materials (like the glass bowl) separate from your food materials.  Even though the ingredients originated in the kitchen, I do NOT recommend using the same materials for food that you use for art.  A few materials/containers such as glass bowls, stainless steel pots, measuring cups, and measuring spoons are inexpensive at garage sales and thrift stores.  I mark my kitchen materials when I take them to my craft room so everyone knows these are for crafts ONLY.  Better safe than sorry.

Here are all the fabrics I dyed, except the pillowcase, which is drying on a different ledge.

This is the fabric that had been dyed once before by ice dyeing it.  This time it was much darker.  If you want to see it in the dye bowl, it is the fabric standing straight up.

This is what was originally a white poly cotton blend.  I liked how it came out.  It was the piece using a clothes pin to create the marks.

I was less enthused about the lace.  It didn't take on the color as I'd hoped.

I tried to get artistic with this backlit shot, but I'm not sure it turned out as nice as I'd hoped.

The twists I nearly killed my fingers for didn't turn out well at all.  I did too many twists and didn't allow enough of the grape juice to penetrate the fabric.  This will definitely have to be over dyed again.

The lighting in my kitchen is so warm during the day, the white fabric didn't look much different from the dyed fabric.

Ruminations:  

1.  I worried when I used the old grape juice, it might have turned colors, but I felt I had nothing to lose by using it.  As you can see, the grape color it should have produced had the juice been fresh, turned brown with age.  It also had little bits of sediment in it that stuck to the various fabrics, even after they were washed.

2.  This is the first tutorial I have created using the "new" blogger.  I had to load each photo separately, because when I loaded more than one photo at a time, I got the grape juice going in the bowl before the supplies were listed.  Frustrating, but still worth loading one at a time.

Now you've seen my drink of choice today, show me yours, please.  By now you more than likely know the rules.  Please share your own drink related post.  It can be gifts you received, photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, mail art, junk mail, catalogs, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Regardless, please share below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.   Please link only your T post and not your blog in general.  Bleubeard would like to remind you that old photos are acceptable because they may be taken any time, not just on Tuesday and not just this year. 

Several asked how I found grape juice so old.  These were behind my scanner, which I had to move when I moved my phone.   They were there a LONG time, because I had used them to hold rippled papers in place on my previous scanner.

 

 

This is Day 10 of AEDM, and I hosted a drink link up party, and created my monthly Second Thursday Tutorial a couple days early.