Color Recap

I finished up the last few color samples over the weekend, and have selected the 8-10 colors I'll use in my upcoming shibori class (March 26-27 in Eureka -- email me for more info if interested in participating).

Probably 80% of these samples were done with mixed colors, created by me using primaries and/or already-mixed colors.  And all dyes, except for one black sample, were from Dharma Trading and Pro Chemical.  The other 20% were straight pre-mixed colors.

Most of you likely know this but for the few who don't, the "primaries" in the Procion line, no matter who you get them from, those with an MX designation in their formula number, are the same dyes from the same pigments -- and, I believe, originally formulated by Ciba a number of years ago.

The suppliers -- Dharma, Prochem, Jacquard -- then mix these primaries in various ways to produce their respective lines of mixed-color dyes.  Sometimes they're virtually the same between suppliers, but with different numbers and different names...sometimes the same number and/or name will be a completely different formula.  So unless you go with only primaries, you'll end up doing a lot of experimenting...which is what I've done.

When I used acid dyes, I mixed from primaries exclusively.  With fiber reactives, I'm using some primaries and some mixed colors, and combining them.  I don't think it matters what you do, as long as you're able to create a color palette that you like.  That's the bottom line.

Being a dyer has really brought out the "closet chemist" in me (better living through chemistry).  I've been enjoying the more technical details of dye experimentation.  I realize what I do is likely over the top for most folks, but so be it...it doesn't seem as though I've really done it if I'm not thorough!

On another topic completely, I'm reading Marlena de Blasi's The Lady in the Palazzo, which is about her settling in Orvieto, Umbria with her Venetian husband Fernando.  Another great read.  Especially now that I no longer plan to attempt to actually move to Italy, I can read about others' trials and tribulations emigrating to another country without having to entertain the idea of ever doing it myself in the future.  I'll definitely be traveling to Italy sometime down the road, but Humboldt County is home.

I'm on the hunt for old linens.  They're hard to come by in my neck of the woods.  The few thrift stores we have here almost never get nice old linens -- I fantasize that one or two local antique dealers pick them off before they hit the shelves in the thrift shops, then sell them in their own shops with inflated prices.  I won't pay good money to tear up linens to use for shibori, so I'm perpetually on the lookout for those that slip through the cracks.  If any of you reading this want to contribute any old linens to the cause, please email me!