It’s dye week in the renovated studio. The table and floor are protected, the dyes mixed and I’m ready to dye thread till my thumb turns blue.
While the white thread is soaking in a bucket of soda ash water (the fixative for Procion MX dyes), I prepare dye sequences for several colorways. Sometimes I use the dye straight out of the dye stock bottle. And sometimes, I cut the dye with water to make lighter values of the dye color.
There are over 60 colorways of threads stocked in the Artfabrik store. Each thread colorway has a formula or sequence of colors that have to be prepared ahead of painting the skeins.
For the remainder of the day, I’ll lay thread skeins one-by-one on plastic trays. Then I paint the thread using the dye formula for that colorway and stack the trays to dry. In one day, I can do about 8 sets of colorways before my feet ask me to stop.