Is it normal that as soon as the snow starts to fall that I, instead of going skiing or hiking, run immediately to the basement to dye my fabrics? I don’t even know anymore. On the one hand I am happy when it starts to snow but on the other hand, I start to feel tired, even though I haven’t even started yet.
Over the past few years, the snowfall here has been noticeably light, so every little snowflake mattered. Of course, I could dye using ice cubes (I still do sometimes), but nothing compares to dyeing with snow. Its unique designs are simply stunning.
This time I went nuts. I cut two beams of white cotton fabric into 140×140 cm squares and went to dye. Of course, it was not possible to dye everything in one day. This process has been going on, in fact, for more than a week.
The process in always the same.
First, the fabric needs to be prepared, meaning it has to be soaked in soda ash. Next is squeezing out any excess water. For this purpose, I use a washing machine and set it to the lowest speed spin it has.
I use various combinations of arranging the fabric in baskets, for example: a harmonica, I twist or crush it into a spiral. (Of course, the baskets are all mesh.) I cover everything with snow and sprinkle dye on it.
The snow melts, the paint dissolves, and the fabric dyes. Then comes the tedious rinsing. This here is the scourge of the entire process. Although I did purchase a dedicated washing machine for this part, the first rinsing I always do manually. My hands ache with such work because they are still not quite as strong as they used to be.
I need to get rid of as much dye as possible that is left on the fabric since it dirties everything around it. Once this process is complete (I call it the first rinsing) I run the washing machine. I arrange the rinsing process in a way so that one cycle of water is used several times. I rinse from the lightest colors to the darkest. I try to do this organized by the colors. It takes time, but it uses less water and is much more economical. I rinse until I see slightly colored water, and then I set up the washing machine to give it a good wash at 40° C.
The fabric is ready. And this is the end of dyeing process.
However, I had an idea (this is not about the rinsing), that, apart from the soda ash, I could also sprinkle some salt on the fabric when it is arranged in the baskets before I start to dye. After all, salt is used when dissolving a dye in water.
You can imagine my surprise when it turned out that fabrics sprinkled with salt have a more intense color than those that were not sprinkled. I’m really glad I stumbled my way into this idea. Eureka. Now the fabrics I dye with snow have a more intense color. Here is the same color compared.
Left side is without salt, right side is with salt. I’m not sure if the difference will be as noticeable in the photos but in reality, it is quite significant. Excellent.
Additionally, I decided to do one more experiment. On some previously prepared fabric (soaking into soda Ash, rinsing, arranging into wire baskets, and sprinkling salt) I sprinkled the dye.
Not onto the snow as I normally do but directly onto the fabric. Then I covered everything with snow.
Today I already know that the colors of the fabric dyed in this method are more intense. However, despite the beautiful shades, I will rarely dye my fabrics this way because rising out excess dye is very difficult and time consuming.
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