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This morning I did a color-match dye process for a student of mine. Our third-year graduate students do a project called Strapless Foundation, whereby they make a dress from a rendering or research image for which a bra is not an option. The dress is constructed over an interior foundation garment, kind of like a boned bustier, with supporting bones, bust cups, and underwires if necessary. They make the foundation and the dress for a specific model (in this case, me). The foundation for my dress is to be made from cotton satin, which i had to dye to match my own midriff's skin tone.
Skin tone matching is (I find) a difficult proposition. Skin tones are complex and varied, with undertones, highlights, mottles, and variations. On the same actor, skin tone can vary drastically from forearm to midriff to leg. When i am called to take a color-match swatch for a skin tone dye request, i always make sure to ask where on the performer's body the match-dyed fabric or notion will go.
When i came to this job, i inherited a skin tone swatch-wheel, comprised of random little swatches of fabric dyed various skin tone shades, interspersed with various flesh-toney paint chips from a hardware store. (I say "wheel," but it's more like a Pantone color book or a hair-color swatch-ring really.) I've seen these kinds of cobbled-together swatch-wheels in other dyeshops as well, and they can be of a certain usefulness. However, what i find far more useful is to compile a corresponding recipe book linked to the swatch-wheel, so that if you do find a direct match, you have your recipe right there, and if you know you are close to a given swatch but need to alter the hue a bit, you have a starting-point recipe to troubleshoot with.
I have a binder which i am slowly filling with mixing tickets, cross-referenced to swatches on my wheel. Recall if you will my shared file, the mixing ticket document:
Download mixing ticket.doc
This is my dye project record form (Word document filetype). Anyone who dyes anything for a mainstage show (me or one of my assistants) fills out this form, attaches swatches, and puts it into the notebook for the show (or "Crafts Bible"). That way if anyone else needs to reference what was done and how on a given dyejob, it's right there on record, type of dye, sample swatches, etc.
When i do a skin tone color match dyejob, i fill out one of these forms, recording my recipe and attaching test swatches, etc., but I also cut a swatch for the skin tone swatch-wheel to which i assign a number, and i mark the form with that corresponding number. That way, when i take the swatch-wheel into a fitting, if one matches directly, i note that number and can look up the original dye recipe. A good skin tone swatch-wheel and recipe book is something you continue to add to over the course of your entire career as a dyer; it takes a while to build up a really effective one, but it can be an indispensable time-saving resource!
The students who take my dyeing and distressing course get a start on their own swatch-wheel and recipe book; in one of the projects, each student does two skin tone matches in enough quantity to distribute a swatch to the entire class. In this way, everyone winds up with a dozen samples and corresponding recipes as a starting point.
On a related topic, there's a fascinating article in the Raleigh News & Observer today about Chuck Stewart, head of the custom couture dye studio Tumbling Colors.
Skin tone matching is (I find) a difficult proposition. Skin tones are complex and varied, with undertones, highlights, mottles, and variations. On the same actor, skin tone can vary drastically from forearm to midriff to leg. When i am called to take a color-match swatch for a skin tone dye request, i always make sure to ask where on the performer's body the match-dyed fabric or notion will go.
When i came to this job, i inherited a skin tone swatch-wheel, comprised of random little swatches of fabric dyed various skin tone shades, interspersed with various flesh-toney paint chips from a hardware store. (I say "wheel," but it's more like a Pantone color book or a hair-color swatch-ring really.) I've seen these kinds of cobbled-together swatch-wheels in other dyeshops as well, and they can be of a certain usefulness. However, what i find far more useful is to compile a corresponding recipe book linked to the swatch-wheel, so that if you do find a direct match, you have your recipe right there, and if you know you are close to a given swatch but need to alter the hue a bit, you have a starting-point recipe to troubleshoot with.
I have a binder which i am slowly filling with mixing tickets, cross-referenced to swatches on my wheel. Recall if you will my shared file, the mixing ticket document:
Download mixing ticket.doc
This is my dye project record form (Word document filetype). Anyone who dyes anything for a mainstage show (me or one of my assistants) fills out this form, attaches swatches, and puts it into the notebook for the show (or "Crafts Bible"). That way if anyone else needs to reference what was done and how on a given dyejob, it's right there on record, type of dye, sample swatches, etc.
When i do a skin tone color match dyejob, i fill out one of these forms, recording my recipe and attaching test swatches, etc., but I also cut a swatch for the skin tone swatch-wheel to which i assign a number, and i mark the form with that corresponding number. That way, when i take the swatch-wheel into a fitting, if one matches directly, i note that number and can look up the original dye recipe. A good skin tone swatch-wheel and recipe book is something you continue to add to over the course of your entire career as a dyer; it takes a while to build up a really effective one, but it can be an indispensable time-saving resource!
The students who take my dyeing and distressing course get a start on their own swatch-wheel and recipe book; in one of the projects, each student does two skin tone matches in enough quantity to distribute a swatch to the entire class. In this way, everyone winds up with a dozen samples and corresponding recipes as a starting point.
On a related topic, there's a fascinating article in the Raleigh News & Observer today about Chuck Stewart, head of the custom couture dye studio Tumbling Colors.
