3.25.2009

It's only fabric...

I continue to practice what I preach--do what you want to fabric, it's no big deal, they'll make more. Only once in a while do I end up with something unuseable--and even those pieces end up being useful later (if I can find them).

So I had this piece of dark blue corduroy that I had discharged with bleach some time ago. It has an irregular pattern to it in that the wales are different sizes. When I hung it up on the wall the other day, I could see a landscape in it, an abstract one to be sure, but still. But I wasn't entirely happy with the patterning and color.

I have Thiox. I did a test piece to see what would happen and this is what happened:



The orange areas are from bleach; the white/green patch from Thiox. So now I know. I have now discharged the corduroy with both and am moving on in the design of the piece.

And sorry for the big gap in posts. I have been distracted by taxes and paperwork and now by scenes like this in my own yard:



That is all.

6 comments:

Ann said...

So between you and Tom, can you explain how and/or why the bleach and thoix results are so different? What happens when just thoix is used on that blue corderoy? It is the two discharging agents or that fact that one is used, then another. Inquiring mind wants to know.

Ann said...

ah hem

corduroy

bj parady said...

Well, they are different chemicals and so the dye reacts differently...I think bleach is a red/ox reaction, not sure about Thiox.
I do know that the white is independent of previous discharging--I put some Thiox on the unbleached corduroy (thank goodness for spell checkers), and got the same color. But it helps the problem of only getting orange when you discharge, right?

bj parady said...

More info. Thiox is a red/ox reaction too, but it is a reducing agent. Bleach is an oxidizing agent. For more info about Thiox, see http://www.dharmatrading.com/info/ddp.html#cr

BTW, Tom says that in order to explain it to you, you'd have to understand how dyes work in the first place. Do you want the two hour lecture or the two day one? :)

bj parady said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
kathy said...

This is interesting Barb. I have Thiox but haven't tried it yet. This sort of looks like what a meteor coming down might look like.