It wasn't until after retirement as a Licensed Master Social Worker and Alternative Healer that I picked up a paintbrush. Watercolors fascinated me with their ability to carry pigmented water to varied places on the page, to merge one color with the next, to create new and varied patterns. The wetter the better for me. Imagine my intrigue then to find a similar process for a wearable medium---ice dyeing fabric!
Practically anyone can ice dye and practically no one would really want to do it. It's messy, time consuming, and labor intensive. After preparing the natural fabric in a special solution, I place it folded or crumpled on a rack, layer ice cubes, then crushed ice, then special powdered dyes on top of that and wait. As the ice melts, it carries the dye with it through the fabric layers, creating wonderful, magical hues and patterns. Three days later I take my first peek and may repeatedly rinse then seal the dye in a fabric, dry it, iron it, and then decide to begin the process all over again if I want to intensify a dye or add even more colors to it. The end result though has me in awe and wonder at the subtly, the detail, the ever-unique combination of each new piece.
Whether painting or dyeing, my goal is to create something brand new, never before seen or interpreted in that way, to surprise myself, to be willing to be open to shifts and to be along for the ride. Abstracts and loose forms fascinate me because they are such rich mediums for storytelling, for evoking emotion, for interaction between the observer and the observed, for limitless potential in interpretation.
