Fabric artists Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka are dedicated to designing extraordinary hand-dyed fabrics. Their hand-dyed fabrics include tie-dyes, sophisticated sponge prints, Shibori and award-winning potato dextrin quilts.
Mrowka mixes powdered potatoes into a gravy-like consistency for the potato dextrin technique (figure A). Next, Mrowka applies the potato dextrin mixture onto black fabric. Crackles form when the mixture dries. Then bleach is sprayed onto the fabric to dissolve the black fabric color between the cracks. Areas of black fabric shine through and the crackles turn white.
Lunn and Mrowka added in their own twists in creating Japanese Shibori dyed fabrics. First, the fabric is rolled onto a piece of PVC pipe then scrunched to create creases. Next the fabric is placed in a tub filled with dye. Once the dye has set the fabric is removed, rinsed, washed and dried (figure B). Lunn and Mrowka are often surprised by the delightful results.
Here are a couple of fabric-dyeing tips:
- Rinse hand-dyed fabrics to ensure that the dyes are set.
- Test hand-dyed fabrics to determine if excess dye has been thoroughly rinsed. Place muslin or white cotton fabric on top of hand-dyed fabric and press with a hot steam iron. The heat and the water (steam) will eliminate the excess dye. If hand-dyed fabrics have been properly rinsed, there will be no absorption of the dyed fabric onto the muslin fabric.
Resources hand-dyed fabric - Lunn
Lunn Fabrics Ltd.
Website:
www.lunnfabrics.com
Guests Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka
Quilt artists, Lunn Fabrics Ltd.
Lancaster, OH
Phone: 740-654-2202
Website:
www.lunnfabrics.com Also in this Episode
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