On Friday I had an induction to the dye labs and colour matching machine. It was great to be back dyein fabrics again and exploring new ways to get the colour matching right to my palette. 

This amazing machine and software will scan a colour chip/fabric and tell you the exact colour mixing measurements to recreate it. It produces a series of results ranging from as close to possible to similar colours and how much of each of the mixed colours (red, blue, yellow, turquoise, violet) to use to create your colour. Previously I've had to mix colours by trial and error which although is a great way to learn how to create colours, it is very time consuming. This new method will allow me to quickly mix a colour and then place it into a machine for an hour and a half which would mix the colour with the fabric and dye it for me saving a great deal of time.

Whilst our fabrics were being dyed we were also given an opportunity to dye fabrics by hand in a pan on a hot plate. This was mainly to explore different types of shiburi dyeing and one off designs. For this we mixed the colours by hand in a fume cabinet, heated it to boiling point and then poured the colour into a pan of hot water.

The result of this was a collection of brightly coloured fabrics. Some were tied around a pole, some had shapes tied in them and one was simply dipped into two of the colours. Some of the techniques I don't feel will be appropriate for my project however the dip dyeing could be if done correctly. The purple I dyed in the machine did come out more red than the chip I had scanned due to not being able to use violet to mix it in the workshop however the colour was perfectly dyed. I will have to re try with the more accurate recipe to see if it comes out closer to the purple I currently have in my palette however I do like the richer purple so will see if that might work better after I have dyed all the colours.