Shibori experiments post-dye-class

I teach my craft classes on a two-year cycle, and whenever i teach my dye class, we generate a lot of mixed-up dye solution which has a limited shelf life. I have the students label and save the solutions they make for their projects, in case over the course of the semester, they want to reuse some of their dyes.

I'm leery, though, after the class ends, of keeping those solutions indefinitely--many dyes have limited shelf-lives, particularly depending on exposure to temperature changes and light, and even if i had an appropriate future project for the stage, i'm just not likely to rely on a solution that a student mixed up three months ago once the theatre season resumes in the fall.

But at the same time, it's a shame to just throw those dyes out when they might be used for something, so this summer i decided to do some shibori experiments with the leftover solutions. These are all Procion MX fiber reactive dyes mixed into water and applied to silk. The fiber reactives require soda ash to activate the reaction, so once i applied the solutions to the fabrics, i then applied a soda ash solution to initiate the dyeing process.

Check out the results!

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