Thinking Out Loud,
Sometimes I just like to cut loose and try something. Not really preparing or thinking about it a whole lot, just grab the stuff and give it a whirl. I’m not sure if this ever really works at once, but it gets me in the ball park, and the ideas begin to build on one another.
So began the coffee and tea experiment. Things in my mind: staining (anyone can do that!), weathering fabric (yeah, I can do that), using what comes to hand (yep! I have lots of coffee and tea), sitting back and watching what happens—got it covered. First off white sateen, poured leftover tea and coffee over, outside hanging from the line. Check. Next day, repeat. Simple experiment, pour stuff over and repeat. Let it rain! Only it didn’t rain. So I just kept it up.
Getting a bit bored, I thought to toss some cotton Pima in a dye bath of very old Safari Grey dye. Check. Added soda ash at appropriate time, and rather than wash it out, just hung it on the line and proceeded to pour coffee and tea over that on a daily basis. And wait for rain…
It began to get interesting….
Then it rained, a little bit. Now, I fully expected the rain to wash out a lot of what I was seeing, but I wanted to see if staining had occurred and if it would “stick”.
Hmm, that’s not too bad, let’s keep going…..
Then, we went away for a week, traveling, and while we were gone it rained. A lot.
And I was back to square one…
I’ve had more staining when I mopped up a whole coffee pot spill! But, I figured I would lose most of the color and detail, just sort of wistful that it pretty much took all of it. However, along the way, it was fun, interesting, and got my brain thinking about how to get the effects I liked in a permanent way. It was a process.
I love the process!
