Retreat

Ricky's dry SA piece

  The Colorado Dyehard Retreat has come and gone.  Hard to believe after a year of thinking and talking about it and several months of getting ready for it, it is just a memory.  We had a good time, learned a great deal from one another, shared many good meals together.   I have many wonderful memories of the Retreat. 

  The group's main emphasis is dyeing with MX Procion dyes on cotton fabric, but we branch out on occasion and use other types of dyes or paints and other fabrics.  During this Retreat we dyed with natural dyes, some dyed silk and velvet pieces, along with using paint and paint sticks.   

Betty Ann's silk scarf, t-shirt and thread

  Yards and yards of fabric, socks, t-shirts, onesies and blankets were exposed to dye, rust and paint in one way or another. 

  Some of the techniques that were studied or used during the week were gelatin plate printing, soy wax batik, discharging with numerous products being used to accomplish this,  painting Tyvek, flower pounding, rust dyeing using several methods, indigo dyeing, dyeing with cochineal bugs, complex cloth pieces were worked on thru out the week using numerous items to make designs, stamping, dyeing thread and perle cotton, snow dyeing, resists, painting with thickened dye, dry soda ash technique, folding fabric and applying dyes, stencils were used with discharge, silk screens,  deconstructed screen printing, and I know there were more, just don't remember all of them. 
Some of us had done a study of how different brands and types of cotton fabrics take up the dye and of course there was a swap of fabric pieces.  Some of those not able to attend the Retreat sent fabric and those attending the Retreat brought fabric already dyed or dyed fabric while here.     

    

One of my favorite shots thruout the week

Sun setting in the west