When I signed up for Holly Brackmann’s Convergence workshop, Fast and Easy Dyeing Without a Dyepot, I had no idea what I was getting into. She’s written a great book called The Surface Designer’s Handbook, and I figured I’d pick up some tips and tricks.
Well, that’s an understatement! Holly introduced me to something completely foreign – disperse dyes – first you paint onto paper, then transfer onto fabric by using a hot iron – preferably onto polyester. Now I don’t really feature going back to wearing polyester (in fact I never really did) so I was stumped for a while and just played around with color.
This was Day 4 of Convergence and I’d spent the last 3 days in shiboriland (more about that later when my samples are done) – my brain wasn’t taking this in. So at lunch I sat down between the big curtain windows overlooking the Hillsborough River and the lunch line, so I saw lots of friends, met new people, joked around and got some good ju-ju going.
That afternoon, I was waiting for the summer afternoon thunderstorms to roll through and found those disperse dyes were just the thing to capture the moment. Thanks, Holly!
Judi Jetson 