I tried hard to get a good photo above, but the reed is dyed in pink, red, and then has some natural in it.In a previous post, I explained how to dye reed HERE. This is where you start to get color on your reed. Please read that post first.
To get the variegated color, cut open your coil of reed and loosen it a bit, but still keep it in its coiled state.
Once your dye bath is ready for the reed, take your coil of reed and bend it slightly to get just a portion of it into the pot. Do this to where you are just inserting about 1/4 of it in the dye. The dye will crawl up the reed to cover about 1/3 of the coil. When it is the desired color, remove the reed and repeat the procedure with your second and third colors. I've tried this several times and have never been able to dye with 4 colors, although you can purchase it with 4 colors, I've just not been able to achieve this myself because I find the color wants to soak up into the reed dying more of it than I originally would like it to. (make sense?) Probably I get to impatient and I'm putting more reed in the dye bath than I should.
Always start with your lightest color first moving to the darkest. It really is a fun way to experiment with dying reed even though it is more work.
Have you ever tried to create variegated space dyed reed?
Baskets of Blessings,
Nancy
I don't think I will ever do basket weaving, but I just enjoy seeing and reading your directions. I have been an avid crocheter in the past and I love to read patterns. Weird I guess.
ReplyDeleteQMM
Cool technique! I'm excited about dying my own reed... Once I figure out how to dye outside in the back yard!
ReplyDelete~~~Anne
Makes perfect sense! I'm going to have to try dying reed this way.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to try it.
Thanks, Nancy!