Hand Dyed Fibers by Robin Laukhuf of Olde Willow StitcheryThreads, Inc.

Date: 4/11/2010
Time: 1:30-4:00
Type: Meeting
Location: Wheaton Community Center
Teacher: Robin Laukhuf

Robin Laukhuf will give a presentation about her business of hand dyed fibers. She will use a projector to show some of the process involved in dying cotton and silk fibers for sale and distribution. She is featured as a contributor to Sampler and Antique Quarterly Magazine and the online magazine The Gift of Stitching. It should be an interesting program and will give us some insights into the fibers we work with. Robin will also bring some fibers and charts for sale. Please join us in April.

Highlights

Joyce Reid, our president, opened the meeting with some announcements. Lynn McVey reviewed the program schedule for upcoming meetings. Please remember that there is no meeting scheduled in May.

In June, Lori Markovic of La D Da designs will present a unique project designed just for our guild! It will be a small ort box with a “fishy” lid design that nods to our Lake Michigan Fishing Lady motif. Deadline to sign up is May 2nd and the cost is just $35.There will be no teaching fee. Lyn encouraged everyone to sign up.

Our picnic is in July and then Tricia Nguyen will teach two workshops on Saturday August 21. They are the Jacobean Silk Purl Flower and the Abby Cozzens 1836 Family Register Sampler. Sign up deadline is June 13 because of the unique fibers that need to be assembled for the kits. Her workshops will probably be held even if less than 12 people sign up. The exact teaching fee will be announced and is payable at the beginning of the workshops.

Our program was presented by Robin Laukhaf. She told us about the early history of the art of dyed fibers which began thousands of years ago. Why use hand dyed fibers in your project? Robin explained the many reasons including the ability to get exactly the colors you want. She talked about the different types of fibers: cotton, wool, linen, silk and perle cotton and the products that can be used to dye each one. The different types of dyes were discussed in detail and Robin explained which dyes could be used for which fibers.

Do you want to try to dye your own fibers? Robin described the process she uses:

Soak your floss in water to remove sizing
Remove and dip the floss in the color dye
Wrap it in saran wrap
Microwave for a short period of time (under a minute)
Caution – make sure you let it cool before opening the saran wrap.
Let the floss dry

She provided a handout that gave us a lot of additional information. We learned that no fiber is colorfast (fading by washing) or lightfast (fading by exposure to light).

Even if you don’t ever dye your own fibers, Robin gave us an appreciation for the work that goes into the process. Thanks Robin, for a very interesting and informative talk.

We hope you will join us for our next meeting on Sunday, June 13, Lori Markovic of La D Da designs will present a unique project designed just for our guild! Sign up deadline is May 2nd. There is no LMSG meeting in May.