Using clamshells in dyeing

We bought some persimmons awhile back that came in this interesting clamshell. I just couldn’t put it in the recycle bin. I had to try dyeing with it.

Here are the three pieces I dyed in this clamshell.

After soaking the fabric in soda ash solution,  I scrunched it in the container.

Using fiber reactive dyes I mixed with water (5 grams of dye to one cup of water) in three colors, I squirted them onto the fabric.

I let it batch for about five hours, washed it out, and here is the finished piece.

This one I just used blue and yellow. They blended together to create green.

This last piece is yellow, orange, and red.

I’m not sure I couldn’t get near the same results by just scrunching the fabric, but it was a fun experiment.

It is interesting using found objects to dye and print with. I hope you’ll come back for my next post where I’ll be printing with several other items that I saved from the recycle bin.

I’m linking today to Nina’s Off The Wall Friday.