Ask LaBricoleuse: Ombre rigs for dyeing
Jan. 23rd, 2008 09:03 amSomeone on the DyersLIST email group asked:
Does anyone know how production is done in the ombre effect, I have to do quite a few and need a faster way.
I wrote a pretty lengthy response to the list, and I thought i'd share it here as well!
(In addition to "dyeing" and "equipment," I'm tagging this post with the "class: dyeing" tag since it does show some good images of our dyeshop facility, which i would be interested in, were i considering graduate school in costume production.)
I'm not sure what your facilities are like or what size yardage or garments you need to ombre--thus, i don't know whether this will be of help, but i do a fair amount of ombre dyeing in my work. I have a couple of pulley rigs that are easy enough to build which maybe you could adapt the ideas for your needs:

In this image, you can see the garment rig, the white rope with a clip hanging over the largest dye vat to the right. That rope runs through a pulley mounted in my ceiling and is secured by looping the rope in a bight around that belaying hook on the wall you can see. In this way, i can ombre large garments in that 60-gal vat easily and with a good deal of control.

In this image, you can see my yardage rig, which i primarily use as a drying rack but is also mounted on a double pulley setup, and which i can use as a bulk ombre rig. I can do multiples in cold-process dyebaths in the triple sink, attach the garments or yardage sections to the lines and use the pulley ropes to dip and hoist.
The single rope/hook rig was maybe $6-$8 worth of hardware and rope and about 15-20 minutes to install. The larger rack setup does obviously involve the building of the rack itself, and the double pulley system is a tiny bit more complicated, but not difficult to put together in an afternoon.
I used the single-pulley rig over the large vat to do the double ombre effect in Romeo and Juliet that i described in a previous post. If i had to do, say, a whole set of trousers and skirts for a cast of 25 or something, i'd do them in batches on the larger rig.
Hope this is of some help to you!
Does anyone know how production is done in the ombre effect, I have to do quite a few and need a faster way.
I wrote a pretty lengthy response to the list, and I thought i'd share it here as well!
(In addition to "dyeing" and "equipment," I'm tagging this post with the "class: dyeing" tag since it does show some good images of our dyeshop facility, which i would be interested in, were i considering graduate school in costume production.)
I'm not sure what your facilities are like or what size yardage or garments you need to ombre--thus, i don't know whether this will be of help, but i do a fair amount of ombre dyeing in my work. I have a couple of pulley rigs that are easy enough to build which maybe you could adapt the ideas for your needs:

In this image, you can see the garment rig, the white rope with a clip hanging over the largest dye vat to the right. That rope runs through a pulley mounted in my ceiling and is secured by looping the rope in a bight around that belaying hook on the wall you can see. In this way, i can ombre large garments in that 60-gal vat easily and with a good deal of control.

In this image, you can see my yardage rig, which i primarily use as a drying rack but is also mounted on a double pulley setup, and which i can use as a bulk ombre rig. I can do multiples in cold-process dyebaths in the triple sink, attach the garments or yardage sections to the lines and use the pulley ropes to dip and hoist.
The single rope/hook rig was maybe $6-$8 worth of hardware and rope and about 15-20 minutes to install. The larger rack setup does obviously involve the building of the rack itself, and the double pulley system is a tiny bit more complicated, but not difficult to put together in an afternoon.
I used the single-pulley rig over the large vat to do the double ombre effect in Romeo and Juliet that i described in a previous post. If i had to do, say, a whole set of trousers and skirts for a cast of 25 or something, i'd do them in batches on the larger rig.
Hope this is of some help to you!
Ombre dance skirts
Date: 2008-02-02 05:08 am (UTC)http://spikywheel.livejournal.com/259197.html#cutid1
The leotards were purchased. I dyed the Silk crepe to match & added trim. I also dyed the shoes. I didn't have a rig, just held each piece by hand and dipped it into the pot. I had one fold fall on the pink dress (which you can see in the photo) Other than that it went very well.
Purple is a HORRIBLE color to match! I was swatching for Hours!
Please show Judy!
Kerri