My Dye Studio
After living and breathing krokbragd for a year, I am ready to jump back into other fiber-related interests.
This summer, I’m participating in a 10-week online Natural Dyeing Study Group at the School of Sweet Georgia. This week’s content covered preparing your space and tools and provided a great opportunity to inventory and reorganize my dyeing equipment and supplies. While the studio is looking so tidy, I took some photos to share with you.
By the way, if you are already a member of the School of Sweet Georgia, I am documenting my project through Study Notes in the Natural Dyeing Study Group Forum. If you are not a subscriber to the School of Sweet Georgia, I encourage you to check it out. And if you decide to be a subscriber, I would be grateful if you would use my affiliate link. Finally, don’t forget, my Krokbragd Weaving workshop will be released on the School’s site in a few weeks!
My “Dye Studio” is housed in one of our barns (cover photo above). Come on inside . .
I get excellent cross ventilation and cooling during our famously hot South Carolina summer days by opening the large barn doors.
While not currently housing any animals, it is still a barn and can be rather dusty. I try to keep my supplies and equipment covered.
The various stands (left side of the above photo) were rescued from the trash when a gift shop closed. They come in handy for a variety of purposes; more on that later.
Removing the covers reveals my two-burner Camp Chef stove that I use as my primary heat source for dyeing. Two other heat sources are a microwave oven and a crockpot. Both of these are also “rescues’ from cleaning out my parents’ home.
I store my drum carder on top of the stove. I found a little bonnet-style Weber grill cover that fits perfectly as a dust cover.
Rain or shine, the barn’s front porch provides a well-ventilated and protected dyeing spot.
This storage unit is fantastic! The Workbox is a sturdy metal cabinet with locking wheels. Wait until you see all the storage inside!
I don’t think the Workbox is made anymore. However, my indoor studio has a similar unit, a Dream Box, where I house yarn and processed fiber (another day’s post). If you are interested, you can see more of these storage units at CreateRoom. This link will provide you $75 off.
The doors open wide (the left one isn’t fully open) and reveal a plethora of storage - shelves, bins, drawers, hooks, and a fold-out table.
Natural dye extracts and dried plant material harvested from my garden.
Graters, funnels, measuring spoons, ladles, and stirrers raided from my kitchen (and only used in the dye studio).
Measuring cups, squirt bottles, small containers, syringes (for measuring tiny amounts).
Mordants and modifiers. Plastic bowls to contain dry plant material for weighing. An all important timer.
Bins with all sort of bits and bobs - masks, goggles, filters, strainers, thermometer, gloves, small bottles with droppers and sprayers, rubber bands (for resist dyeing), small containers of dye extracts.
Small scale for weighing dye materials. Larger scale for weighing fiber. Mortar and pestle to crush dye materials (cochineal bugs). Trivets for hot pots.
These are cute little glass jars that contained Oui! yogurt. Not only is it my favorite yogurt, but I have put the leftover jars to several good uses.
For dyeing mini skeins. See this post Dyeing a Pyramid.
And to hold small amounts of dye colors for hand painting. See post Painting Skeins.
There are drawers where I store towels for clean up, paper and pencil for keeping notes, and tags for labelling.
The compartment under the table houses jugs (recycled milk containers) of mixed dyes and additives (citric acid). I also have a couple of short lengths of PVC pipe that I use for shibori dyeing.
A variety of glass pans and plastic basins (from hospital stays) come in handy for soaking fibers before dyeing and rinsing after dyeing.
This is a metal storage rack with a Formosa cover. I like that it has a see-through front and that it easily zips open and shut. Peeking out from behind are two boxes with folding tables that are handy for larger projects and workshops.
Inside I house a variety of stainless steel and enameled pots. Smaller pots are stored inside the larger pots. I also keep baskets with hand clippers that I use to harvest dyestuff from my garden.
The blue thing is a mini spin dryer. (This is not the same one, but similar.) It works excellent for dyed fiber after rinsing and after wet-finishing other weaving, spinning, and knit projects.
Speaking of drying, remember those rescued display racks hanging out in the corner? They make great drying racks! And occasionally, I actually use them for displaying too.
And nothing beats a good old-fashioned clothes line!
The final stop on my tour is a utility sink. It isn’t pretty, but it does the job. It’s cold water only, but I have heat sources, and if I need just a little hot water, the house is just a stone’s throw away.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this look around my dye studio. Although I have made a few purchases, the vast majority are found items that I have repurposed. Maybe you may have gleaned a few ideas if you are interested in a dye setup.
In the weeks ahead, I plan to share more from this summer’s Natural Dyeing Study. In the meantime, check out some of my previous Dyeing posts:
I also have a Natural Dyeing workshop on Skillshare called ‘Natural Dyeing-As Easy As Tea’. While Skillshare is a membership site, this link will give you a free trial if you are interested.
