Painted Cotton Warps.

 I painted a cotton warp the other day.  Mainly because I had this idea for funky tea towels, but the timing was so I could use it as an example for the guild's upcoming cotton dye day.  I meant to take photos, but I got involved in the process and didn't have a spare set of gloves, so I missed the photos of the actual painting process.  

 It's been crazy warm here.  Not as warm as in Europe but still really warm for us, so I was able to batch process outside.  I wrapped the warp in plastic cling film, set it in my black enamel dye pot and set that in my black wheel barrow, because I could tilt it slightly to catch the sun.   The warp bundles got really warm, and uncomfortably hot to touch.    They rinsed out quickly and I was happy!

These are 5 warp chains drying, with 42 threads each.   They will create colour bands between 6 similar sized vertical stripes of navy blue.    I'm looking forward to seeing this project on the loom.

I used Procion MX dyes and sodium carbonate (Soda Ash) as a fixative.   I put them to set in the sun and left them for 24 hours.   It did get quite cool at night, but the next day they had heated back up so that they were hot to the touch.    The dyes were mixed at 1%  and I just diluted them in a secondary container as I worked.