It Snowed!

Doesn't that look better?  Although we didn't get as much as predicted and nothing like DC is digging out of, we did get some snow to brighten up the landscape--and to use for snow dyeing.

A friend came over and together we prepared the fabric, packed snow in on top of it, and then squirted, dripped, and poured dye all over the snow.  While I am impatiently waiting for the fabric is warm up to room temperature, I thought I would record the first step of the process.

This snow was much different from my first experiment.  Last time the snow was old and had lain around for a while.  It was wet from melting a bit and so packed firmly over the fabric and the bins were heavy.  This snow was still falling as we used it.   Although it was quite sticky, it had a powdery, sparkly quality, like the Ivory Snow snow we used to make as children, as my friend said, and while we packed the bins full, they were still light and I could easily have carried four at once. It took the dye differently as well, as the dye immediately carved deep canyons in this snow, while it just sat on top of the other snow and then gradually soaked through.   This snow also melted much faster and was gone almost completely after six hours.

And here are the bins waiting to be rinsed:

This is bin A with deep purple and scarlet dyes.

On the left is bin D that was dyed with concentric circles of Brilliant Blue, Scarlet, Deep Purple, Brilliant Blue, Deep Purple.  I have a feeling that they all get mixed together in the final result, but this is an experiment.  On the right is bin B dyed in stripes of Lemon Yellow and Kilt Green.

This is bin C dyed with brilliant blue and mist gray with dots of amethyst.  My experiment with this bin was tilting it at an angle, which definitely resulted in some white at the top, but we will see if it produced any other anomalies.

And, last of all, is the orange tray that has more surface area than the other bins.  Instead of scrunching the fabric, I just folded it, not absolutely neatly, but with many less hills and valleys than the others.  If you have really good eyes, you might even be able to see the small maple leaf I managed to scoop up with the snow.  It's in the lower right corner.

So stay tuned for the results.  And I not only get to see my results, but my friend's as well--twice the surprise.