Ice dyeing

I am really interested in exploring different dyeing techniques, so I have chosen to experiment with Ice Dyeing, which I have never done before.

I started by gathering everything I needed pictured and labelled in the image below.

The photo below shows a clear picture of the pots of powdered dyes, I thought that it was important for me to record this. If I do use this technique and experiment further I might want to know which dyes I have used.

First, I dampened my large piece of fabric under the tap. Dampening your fabric before adding the dye allows for better dye saturation.

I then laid the piece of calico flat on a table before crumpling the fabric up and putting two elastic bands around it to hold the fabric together. Next I placed the fabric into my container.

I decided to move the fabric next to one edge of the container instead of being in the middle so that when I added my ice cubes on top, covering the fabric they did not all slide off.

I then randomly sprinkled the 4 different coloured dyes on top of the ice cubes. After this I just left the ice cubes to melt.

This is a close up photo of the powdered dyes on the surface of the ice cubes.

This is the ice cubes after a few hours, they seemed to melt quite slowly.

I soaked up some of the red dye pictured next to the fabric with a piece of kitchen roll so that it did not dye the bottom of the fabric sitting in the liquid all one colour.

Once all the ice cubes had melted away and the dye had soaked into the fabric, I lifted the dyed fabric out of the container momentarily, so that I could pour away the rest of the dye in the bottom of the container. I then placed it back in the container for a few more hours.

After a few hours I took both of the elastic bands off and unraveled the fabric slightly so it could begin to dry.

The next day, when my fabric was completely dry I decided to rinse it out under the tap to remove all the excess dye.

I then left it to dry again on some kitchen roll.

Now that it was completely dry again, It looked very creased, so I ironed it.

This is what it looks like after it had been ironed there is still some creases but only small ones.

I absolutely loved this technique and I am extremely happy with the final result. I particularly like the water marks on the fabric from the ice melting and also as the ice melted the powered dyes mixed together.

I found it really interesting that you don’t really know how it is going to turn out as you just add the ice and dye and leave it to melt.

I am interested in potentially using this technique in my final piece.