Chromaticity Fabric Dyeing with Carol Soderlund

A year or two ago, my friend Amy showed me her 3" binder filled with pages and grids of 1" samples all made in a 5-day Color Mixing for Dyer's Workshop with Carol Soderlund.  After drooling over each exquisitely brilliant page of hand dyed samples, I resolved to take a workshop with Carol in the upcoming year.  I registered as soon as her 5-day Chromaticity: Flat & Glowing workshop opened for registration, through the Pacific Northwest Art School, located in beautiful Coupeville, WA.

Last week, I eagerly packed my suitcase full of dye supplies and was on my way to Washington State for a week of dyeing bliss!

My Bags Are Packed...Leaving On a Jet Plane!

Like much of the West Coast, the area surrounding Seattle has several active Wildfires, which caused significant delays flying in and out of Seattle/Tacoma airport due to decreased visibility.  Our plane departure was delayed well over an hour and even en route, the pilot delayed our arrival by making a number of turns in the air.  Luckily these turns coincided with our flyover of several large Washington peaks--which you can just barely see above the cloud of smoke in the picture above.

Airport Art in  SEA/TAC Women's Bathroom - Flag Made out of Soda Cans

Despite the delays, we were on our merry way driving up to Coupeville.  All the directions included taking the Mulkilteo-Clinton Ferry, which leaves every half hour or so.  We arrived just as one of the ferries was making port, and were assigned to Lane 6.  When it came to loading, the traffic control let 2-3 cars from our lane board, but then proceeded to let entire lanes to the right of us go next.  The next thing we knew, the ferry was full and we had to wait for the next one.  20 or so minutes later, the other ferry arrived and again, 1-2 cars from Lane 6 were let on but not us.  What the heck?!?  I told Amy that if we didn't get onto the next ferry, I would resort to getting myself some soft service ice cream, which was directly across the street from us.  When they began to board the next ferry, all the other cars were boarding and neither of us was staying calm.  Finally we were directed to proceed and must have been among the last 10 or so vehicles to board...phew!

Hard to Keep Calm When You Keep Missing Ferry After Ferry

As we crossed the Puget Sound, most of the visibility was obstructed by all the smoke from the surrounding wildfires.

The next day began our adventures into Chromaticity!  Each day was interspersed with lecture presentations, demonstrations and then putting it all into action in the afternoon where we completed a number of color studies.  Using only 3 pure dyes, our first task was to follow Carol's recipes to create the 24 secondary and tertiary colors we would need for the week.

For our first color study, we were each assigned a set of complementary colors to create a gradiant from one color to its complement by gradually adjusting the proportion of each color used.  Of course we had to wait overnight to see the results, but thanks to the power of the internet, you can see the lovely palette I created in the bottom right next to Amy's on the left.

Color Study #1:  Using Complements

Each morning was like Christmas, where we would excitedly return to the classroom and unwrap all our hand dyed goodies for the washout process.  We would squeeze out any excess dye, followed by a rinse, and then load into the washing machine.

Washout Process

Once the washout was complete, everyone went to work pressing the swatches, sorting them into piles and then pinning them up for display (and lots of photo ops!!)

Color Study #1...Ta-Done!!

Are you drooling yet?!?  With a large class of 17 students, we were able to do all 12 sets of full depth of dye (top pictures) and 6 participants worked with slightly diluted recipes to create medium value sets of complements.

Full Depth of Dye vs. Diluted Dyes

The next day, we studied Chromaticity by working with color gradients mixed with black and neutral gray dyes.  Again, we carefully portioned out the dyes starting with all purple with no black, to mostly purple, just a little black all the way until there was no purple and all black.  We repeated the same concept using Neutral Gray (a pure dye available through ProChemical & Dye).

Color Study #2:  Working with Black and Neutral Gray

Here I am posing with our finished gradients using black (top rows) and neutral gray (bottom rows).

Color Study #2...Ta Done!

Are you drooling yet over all these brilliant bursts of color?!?  Ok--here are a few more color studies we did.  For this next round of exercises, we were each assigned one (or more) of the 24 colors to create a value gradient from full saturation of color to more diluted color yielding a lighter shade of the same color.

Color Study #3:  Creating Shades through Dilution

Once we were done, we carefully cut each fabric into 1" square swatches which were shared with the entire class and taped onto sheets provided by Carol that included the recipe/depth of dye.  Here are all 5 sheets assembled into a mosaic of gorgeous color gradations!!

Glowing Color Gradations

In the evenings, Amy and I (and several of our fellow classmates) explored Coupeville.  Here are just a few pictures from our Coupeville nightly adventures... 

Welcome to Coupeville-Design Inspiration from Our Evening Walks

Coupeville Color Inspiration Found in Nature

Our AirBnB was located along Madrona Way, which I assume was named for the line of Madrone trees along the side of the road.  Each tree was unique as it twists up towards the sky and the bark peels away to reveal extraordinary color and texture.

Madrone Tree Colors, Patterns and Textures

We celebrated each day's dyeing deeds with delicious dinners out around the Coupeville area, including dining al fresca overlooking Penn Cove at Captain Whidbey's Inn, complete with live music.  We learned early on that the ice cream shoppe closes early, so one night we went out for ice cream first and then had dinner (priorities people!!!)  The next day we celebrated with some gelato at Ciao's.  And we may or may not have gone through a half-gallon of ice cream back at our AirBnB on the other nights!! 

Evening Celebration & Fun!

What an amazing week!  Carol is an incredible teacher.  Not only is she an expert dyer, but she is extremely well-organized and very generous in sharing her expertise and experience with her students.  She is honest, positive and dedicated!  I am already looking forward to next year where she will return to the Northwest Pacific Art School to teach her NEW Color Mixing for Dyers 5-day workshop!!   If you'd like to learn more about Carol, I encourage you to visit her website, buy her co-authored Playful Fabric Printing book, listen to this wonderful podcast hosted by Abby Glassenberg or better yet, take one of her workshops!!

Special thanks to the staff and volunteers at the Northwest Pacific Art School for being such wonderful hosts and for providing me with a scholarship award to help offset my costs. 

Until Next Year...