Fabric dye experimentation

Having bought 4 Dylon dyes - Burlesque Red, Tulip Red, Flamingo Pink and Velvet black - I started to experiment to find the right mix for the shade of pink I need. Knowing that Habotai takes in dye at an incredible rate I put sample pieces in bowls of dye for ranges of time from 30 seconds to 10 minutes to test the shade and vibrancy of colour (all of which are documented in my note and sketchbook)

After having found a mix that worked (to what I thought was the right depth and shade) I dyed a large square of the habotai in the pink, then dip dyed the centre of the square with a strong mix of the black. When I washed and dried the fabric though it came out far too light!

Thanks to this I have also found that dip dying to a graduated edge with a large section of fabric is something that I cannot achieve - it folded over on itself in places making a streaky, sun burst effect of black on the pink, which, while an incredibly interesting and lovely effect is not the one that I need.

I tried to fix this by using a mister (as in the spray bottles that create a fine mist usually used for plants or cosmetics) to spray black over the streaks to try and create a more graduated effect, and in a way it has worked, but not to the degree I wanted it to.

Having tried this I plan to use a stronger concentration of the dylon dye for a longer period of time, and to try using the mister from the start to get the graduated effect that I want.

MY NEW FAVOURITE PLACE!

Today marks a momentous occassion - my first visit to the Dorset Scrap Store in Poole! I dont know what exactly I was expecting but it is a treasure trove, an Aladins cave of weird and interesting finds! This has definitely become my new favourite place of interest. I ended up spending a little over an hour just hunting around  and came away with a membership, and a bin liner full of interesting materials to try out for my prototype (...and also fabric for a dress and materials to try making a kite with for the summer when I have a free moment, neither of which I had thought of before entering the store so an impressive feat!...)

I also have a couple of new idea's for things to use as my slug trail to prototype - courtesy of the scrap store - that could free up some of my budget! I also picked up an interesting find in pink camouflage netting which I want to try putting round the edges of the giant slug prototype to see if I can give it a more interesting edging. It will be interesting to experiment with!

FINAL DESIGNS!

Carnival scene with giant sea slug and individual sea slugs

Presenting - the final designs for Wyke Regis School for the Moving Tides Carnival! As per the request of the steering group I have changed my giant slug from being carried to being worn, and I am keeping the individual costumes with it. In the top image I wanted to draw out my design for the giant slug while at the same time get an impression of what it would look like alongside the individual costumes.

Upon development and reflection it seems that rather then the 3.5m long the giant slug would have been when it was being carried, it will now have to be in the range of 8m long - this will be to avoid the students walking into each other or tripping on each other during the procession.


NOTE! - The colour will look different depending on the colour settings of your monitor! The pink we are using is not flourescent or neon, but a slightly darker version. scroll down to fabric photo's for a better idea of the colour - again, the colour will look different depending on the monitor you are using.

The Dye Room! Followed by research, research, research...

FRIDAY

Friday was all for experimenting in the dye room! As it was the last day before the Easter break (so the last day for access to the dye room for the next 2 weeks) I wanted to get as much of my dying experimentation done as possible!

I started out dying cable ties purple- which tuned out to be a surprise, I had no idea they would take the dye so well and so quickly!

Initially I tried an equal mix of blue to fushia red but it came out blue, every time. I later found out that this was because, contrary to its name fushia red comes out purple! The eventual mix I came to that gave me the perfect shade was;

The Mix:
1tsp      Kemtex Royal Blue synthetic fabric dye
6tsp      Kemtex Fushia Red synthetic fabric dye
500ml  Water
Salt

Dip dye the cable ties for no more then 20 seconds - they take up the blue much faster then the red so if you leave them in longer they go blue!

I discovered through exerimenting that i could dye the ties to different shades and intensities of purple through how long I dipped them, and that when put together they created a really impressive effect.

I went fabric shopping on Thursday and found a range of 4 different fabrics, three in white - a synthetic lining fabric, a satin lining fabric, and silk habotai - that were of the right weight and sheen for the effect I need. The third was a synthetic lining fabric in almost the exact shade of pink I need! The hitch being it is a synthetic lining fabric, and so far I haven't been able to make it accept the black fabric dye, and after trying for an hour it had gone a dark purple but that was all

After an afternoon of experimentation I finally found the mix close to the pink that I need - the closest I can get to a dark neon! I tested three different types of fabric - a polyester lining fabric, a satin lining, and silk habotai! The silk habotai worked the best by far.

The Mix:
4 tsp    Kemtex Fushia Red
500ml Water

3tsp     Kemtex Scarlet Red
500ml Water

Salt as required

Mix so there is 1 part scarlet red mix, 2 parts fushia red mix with salt as required. Again, the silk habotai takes the dye very fast - it needs to be in for 8 seconds and NO MORE! Any longer and it goes red. Immediately rinse with water, and scrub with soap flakes to remove extra dye and you are left with a deep vivid pink!

I am going to try experimenting at home with Dylon to see if I can get the colour perfect but as yet this is a brilliant shade just a bit dark.

Now I need to find the way to dye the centre black. I need to experiment with dip dying and different dyes (starting with Dylon)


SATURDAY

Saturday was for research to making and materials! I spent the majority of the time researching where to get the right length and price cable ties. I am set to need 10 per cape (230) with another 25 for the Giant Slug (Total of 260)

The length of cable tie that I need is 43 cm long - and I have found that I can get all the cable ties that I need (for the individual costumes and the giant slug) for less then £10 online! Which is a great relief considering the amount of different items I need to budget in between the individual costumes and the giant slug.



SUNDAY

Today I have spent researching

High Vis Jackets/fabric
Silk Habotai
Tinsel/streamers for the slug trail

To start with, the best place and prices to get silk habotai at the right width! I have checked online and the consensus is that the average height of a 10 year old is 138cm, and the average arm span is 140cm. Minus length of the hands, the head height, and making sure the capes are high enough not to trail across the ground that means I need 1m of 140cm wide silk habotai per cape! Which means overall I will need 23m of 140cm wide silk habotai overall for the 23 capes.

TO EXPLAIN WHY I AM NOT USING THE UNI STOCK OF FABRIC -
The AUCB haberdashery stocks silk habotai at £5.80 pm with 115cm wide. This is 25cm too short to be used as the arm width so would be the length of the cape, but this would mean that for every cape I would have to buy one and a half metre's. This comes out as £8.70 per cape just for the silk, which makes it almost a pound more expensive, and too long in terms that it would have to be cut down by 15cm for the length and 10cm for width of the cape making for lots of excess wasted fabric. Therefore it is more economical to use the £7.99 fabric at 1m per cape.

This is NOT including the giant slug, as this will need to be at the minimum 3m long and 140 wide, but with the giant slug the challenge will be to make it more length around the edges then the centre so that it will billow the way that it needs to.

High Vis fabric/jackets! I have looked up a variety of ways and places to get high visibility fabric and jackets to see where is best, which is cheapest and how to get them and I have discovered a website selling high visibility clothing that is selling large sizes of high viz vests for £1.99 each! From the projected size I am hoping we can use half a jacket per cape! I will need to do some mock ups on how to get the most spots out of them. I also plan to see if I can get some jackets for cheaper or for free if the local motorcycle training centre has any they are getting rid of, or if I can find anywhere else that is giving them away but at the moment this is what is coming out at the best price.

Streamers! I looked at tinsel, party streamers and in the end I have found doorway streamer curtains (3ft wide to 8ft long) where 3 of them in a row will be the right length and effect to create the slug trail of the giant slug! They look brilliant and thankfully also come out best in terms of budget too.


ITEMS FOUND:

SILK
CABLE TIES
HIGH VIS FABRIC FOR SPOTS
STREAMERS - SLUG TRAIL


ITEMS LEFT TO FIND AND PRICE:

Ridgelene
Velcro
Elastic
Cake cases
Swimming hats
Plasterzote 3mm - Visiting the scrap store in Poole for prices!


Despite the amount of research I've done on the best places to get what I need cheaply, and substitutions where possible, this is going to be very tight on budget!


INITIAL BUDGET ESTIMATE - working out at £43.97 remaining after currently found materials...

Between Tutorials - the task is set!

Currently between tutorials but I have now recieved my feed back from the Movin Tides Steering group on which aspects of my costumes they want me to continue with and the method's they advise, and the judgement is thus;

1 - THE GIANT SLUG  - this will be made slightly differently from my origional idea but in a way that is simpler and works better for the performers. Sketch to follow as this has lead to some interesting develompents as it is now worn by 7 students rather then carried!

2 - MASKS - I will still be making the masks I had designed for the students not carrying the slug, with some design development to follow.

3 - CAPES - also for the students not wearing the Giant Slug we will be doing the capes!

4 - DANCE LEADER SLUG HEAD - the dance leader headress will still be made and used.

5 - for me to make only, the T-shirts will still be used and dyed by me but not decorated.


This leaves me with:

7 students carrying the slug - 7 black masks plain?
                                             - 7 black swim caps/ head coverings

23 students not carrying the slug -  23 Capes
                                                      - 23 Masks

30 T-shirts to dye pink

3 Dance Leader masks

                                              
33 costumes overall



This has lead me to working on my materials list and the begining of my budgeting! We are also tasked with submitting our travel cost budget today based upon the projected costs (thanks to the online rail service fare calculator and the same for the busses!)

Also - exciting stuff, we are meeting with our make-up students today (in about 5 minutes) who will be working with us and designing make-up to go with our costumes for our students and dance leaders!

Presentation - Reflection and moving forward!

Today was the day of the big presentation to the Moving Tides team and the makeup students we will be working with. It was great to see what the others had come up with, and really interesting to see the different directions people had gone and how they reached them.

For me, it was useful but has left me in a bit of a quandry. We were asked to compile our idea's into a powerpoint presentation of 2-3 slides...



My initial idea was that I would have the 2 options of either the Giant slug as the focus with the kids taking turns carrying it, with the ones not carrying it doing the dance they are having workshops on in the decorated T-shirts and masks (preferably the ones without the horns as if they are carrying the slug they had the chance of being knocked off) and as a second option they could have the individual costumes of the horned masks with the decorated T-shirts and decorated slug capes.

Now after having had the meeting the team liked the idea of the Giant Slug, and the slug capes - and it has been suggested that instead of the masks I use makeup - supplied by the makeup team we will be working with - to save on time and instead have the Giant Slug AND the Slug Capes, WITH the decorated T-shirts. However there is the issue of whether we will have enough time in the four workshops and how much time I will have outside of that to put in, and if the budget will cover it.I am perfectly willing to put in whatever work required outside of the workshop hours, but I do want to have as much of it as possible done by the students so that they can truly feel that the costumes and creations are theirs.
The team decided to have a meeting this afternoon to discuss my designs and the other designs for Moving Tides and then get back to me with what they want me to do - hopefully in the de-briefing session in the morning.

In the meantime I have had a rethink on the way to make the giant slug - this time using willow instead of my origional play tunnel skeleton idea, and have decided to test the viability of the Giant Slug by making a mini prototype using willow for the skeleton instead. I have aleady started by using the willow ovals I made to test creating shapes in our willow workshop. Now I need to finished the skeleton tomorrow and go fabric hunting for the best option to use!

Designing away!

These last few days have been all for experimentation and design - and with the presentations looming tomorrow I thought it was about time to give you a sneak peak before it all changes (or not as the case may be) after the meeting with the Moving Tides team.


My initial starting point was the lion fish, and after doing doodles of basic designs during the meetings in my notebook....

...I developed it on to this!

There is the consideration though that the boys may have objections - they have to wear pink, so I need to make it more accessible to them!
So - THE DEEP SEA SLUG! Otherwise known as the Nudibranch, the deep sea slug is a beautiful creature, and strange - very strange! - varied in colour, shape and size they have bright, bold colours and an odd almost gelatinous quality to them, they dont slime there way along like land slugs they ripple through the water.

After a tutorial with Adele I looked at 2 forms of designs for the Sea Slugs - firstly an individual costume to be worn by the students...

... and as a second option, a more simple design for the kids (a mask and T-shirt without the cape) with a giant sea slug that they could take turns carrying through the streets with the dance leader as the Slug Head!

Designing - directions



My initial design ideas for this project were based on a fish I found in the Bournemouth Oceanarium - the Lion Fish!

I had doodled it in my notebook at the Kinetika weekend and the teachers liked the design so I did some more doodles of it - and then I found out that our colour was pink and that we had a very boy heavy year - and while my teachers did like the effect of the wings, as do I, I decided I may have to re-think my approach.

In the meeting there was also some mention of sea monster type costumes, which got me thinking about deep sea creatures. So while developing my lion fish design as an option I started researching and I discovered Nudibranches - otherwise known as Deep Sea Slugs! Sound pretty strange looking? They are, but surprisingly beautiful and they fit well with the brief. So as a second design pathway I have started designing Sea Slug costumes.

Workshop week

Today was the first of this weeks workshops, todays focussing on plasterzote, headress and mask making. We spent the day experimenting with shapes, structure, surface texture and decoration. For myself a large part of this involved testing the height bearing capacity of my headress, as part of the brief for this project is creating height in our costumes. I based today's headress and mask on an initial concept sketch.

Our masks and and headress creations at the end of the day.