After attempting to deal with the dye bleed (spot clean, re-gutta, re-dye) I then got dye bleeds in different places so decided to just live with it.
The Final Frontier for the banner project was steam fixing the dye. I'd bought steam fix dyes on the advice that they produce the nicest colours without loosing the suppleness of the silk. The instructions were to roll the silk up in brown paper, then coil and place in a steamer (standard vegie steamer in my case, which I was assured works fine). The big warning was "Don't let the silk get wet or it will end in tears".
So after a long quest for brown paper (harder than you might think - I eventually found some rolls at a Newsagent for "covering school books"), I was ready. I rolled my silk up in the brown paper (I had skinny rolls so had to use three long strips that overlapped), coiled it up in the steamer and put it on to steam.
At this point it would really have been a good idea to:
a) read the instructions on the bottle of dye a bit more carefully
b) not attempt to do A&S projects while having the flu (impairs judgement no end and my brain had gone slightly squishy after running around town looking for brown paper, but at times like this you never remember that perhaps you should not be doing anything that needs good mental acuity)
So the instructions on the bottle were "after painting onto silk, let dry for 6 hours then steam for 1-3 hours". I mis-read and steamed for 6 hours.
Remember the warning about don't let the silk get wet while steaming? I'd been very careful about making sure the steamer basket didn't touch the water in the base, but 6 hours in a steamer produces a lot of condensation and the rolled up brown paper silk parcel was a tight fit.
So, it got wet and the end result was a banner that would be perfect if we we're off to a Woodstock re-creation society, but not quite the look I was going for.
The reason why the dye must not get wet during the steaming is that steam fix dye, once fixed, is fixed rather permanently. The instructions said to wash in cold water to rinse out excess dye, which I did. I then gave it a soak in "run away" to see if that would possibly remove the dye and leave the gutta. That dye is pretty firmly set. The photo above is after all the soaking.
It did not end in tears, however. Mr B had done a little banner down the narrow end of the banner in the spare silk and that end didn't get as wet so it only had a few little splotches. It looks nice and the colours came out really nicely.
So we'll chalk this one up to experience and go back to the drawing board and start again and get a larger steamer this time and read the instructions properly.
The Final Frontier for the banner project was steam fixing the dye. I'd bought steam fix dyes on the advice that they produce the nicest colours without loosing the suppleness of the silk. The instructions were to roll the silk up in brown paper, then coil and place in a steamer (standard vegie steamer in my case, which I was assured works fine). The big warning was "Don't let the silk get wet or it will end in tears".
So after a long quest for brown paper (harder than you might think - I eventually found some rolls at a Newsagent for "covering school books"), I was ready. I rolled my silk up in the brown paper (I had skinny rolls so had to use three long strips that overlapped), coiled it up in the steamer and put it on to steam.
At this point it would really have been a good idea to:
a) read the instructions on the bottle of dye a bit more carefully
b) not attempt to do A&S projects while having the flu (impairs judgement no end and my brain had gone slightly squishy after running around town looking for brown paper, but at times like this you never remember that perhaps you should not be doing anything that needs good mental acuity)
So the instructions on the bottle were "after painting onto silk, let dry for 6 hours then steam for 1-3 hours". I mis-read and steamed for 6 hours.
Remember the warning about don't let the silk get wet while steaming? I'd been very careful about making sure the steamer basket didn't touch the water in the base, but 6 hours in a steamer produces a lot of condensation and the rolled up brown paper silk parcel was a tight fit.
So, it got wet and the end result was a banner that would be perfect if we we're off to a Woodstock re-creation society, but not quite the look I was going for.
The reason why the dye must not get wet during the steaming is that steam fix dye, once fixed, is fixed rather permanently. The instructions said to wash in cold water to rinse out excess dye, which I did. I then gave it a soak in "run away" to see if that would possibly remove the dye and leave the gutta. That dye is pretty firmly set. The photo above is after all the soaking.
It did not end in tears, however. Mr B had done a little banner down the narrow end of the banner in the spare silk and that end didn't get as wet so it only had a few little splotches. It looks nice and the colours came out really nicely.
So we'll chalk this one up to experience and go back to the drawing board and start again and get a larger steamer this time and read the instructions properly.
3 comments:
Man, it is all so random, isn't it?
Have just steamed 3 banners for Rowany25 and my personal pennon. One got a bit moist, but isn't too bad considering what can happen. If you need some help, give me a yell.
I so have no luck with steaming banners. I was planning on trying to get up to Stow when you were doing the Rowany 25 banners to watch someone else do it, but postgradaute study ate my life.
I've talked to Hunydd about it and I think it may be that my steamer wasn't large enough or the brown paper sausage was too big.
I have another one painted and ready for steaming, but I'm too scared to do it :)
I can understand why you might be scared ;)
You're more than welcome to bring it over and I'll give you a hand if you like, I have a really good steaming pot and hey, I could do with some company when Kas heads off to Edinburgh...
(oh...and check out my LJ...)
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