Monday, June 7, 2010

Paint dying ribbon















I bought this earring holder off a lady for $1 at a flea market. I don't know what I thought I was going to use it for, but I finally figured it out this weekend. I added nails at strategic points around the frame and used it to hold my ribbon while I painted it with dyes. I got this idea from a book called "Silk Ribbon Embroidery Bible" by Joan Gordon. It was fun and I like the variegated look of the ribbon. The ribbons need to be wet to get the variegated effect. I painted the entire ribbon first with water then with a light color. Then using a darker version of the same color, I just touched the edge of the top of the ribbon and the dark dye would run into the light creating interesting effects. I used both silk ribbon and white rayon seam binding. The silk ribbon was 13mm and is the purple ribbon in the photos. I also tried 4mm silk ribbon and it worked fine (not pictured). The green and yellow ribbons in the photos are the white rayon seam binding.

3 comments:

Cathy said...

This is really a great idea and I love the way your ribbons turned out! Are they 7 mm? 13mm? It's hard to tell the scale.... Hugs, Cathy

Thelma said...

Awesome idea Connie, love your ribbons. This is still one thing I've got to learn to do is dye my ribbons.

Laurie said...

Love the colors, Connie. Is this the ribbon you found on Friday? Good job!