GD: Morning Rose

I bought this pretty Indio Natur wrap not really wanting to dye it, as I liked it very much the way it was.
But in the end I decided to change it, as I wouldn`t be using it too much anyway.
So here`s Morning Rose, in fact a four colour grad, created with the use of Emerald Green, Avocado, Raspberry and Brown Rose:








Morning Rose was adopted by Iza, a very talented dyer, which is a great compliment!

GD: Iris

I was asked to dye this wrap by one lovely mama who really knew what she wanted-and chose the most beautiful, but difficult colours:)
Teal and Purple-both dark, rich and intensive-that`s a challenge!
I composed this special Purple out of Marine Violet, Deep Purple and Cobalt Blue-the idea was to make it rich but not too pinky, and purples tend to turn pinkish sometimes...
Teal was just teal, and as it turned out, one dose was not enough-the linen in the wrap (Indio Ice) drank it quite vigorously. So the teal part had be re-dyed-with Teal again, just to make it deeper.
This was version 1, with a different name then...



And this is how it looks now-a bit darker on the teal side:

GD: Turquoise Fields

Indio hemp arrived BNIB as a trade for our Zara OOAK, with which I didn`t get along really.
Hempy was quite sturdy and didn`t seem to like cooperation, so after the first wash, I grad-dyed him (him?:) using pale colours (knowing that I would be redying him later!), just to check how he liked it: Robin`s Egg and Pearl Grey.
Hempy drank all the dye and turned half pale bluish and oyster brownish-grey.
Real beast.
In the afternoon then, I slightly changed my approach and another gradation (over-gradation, should I say?) with the use of Turquoise and Chocolate appeared to work.
This is how he looks now:

Tussah Silk Fish-not gradation, but...

...Aztec Gold.
I decided to give my silk fishies a makeover one day, and among all the beautiful colours to choose from, the only suitable option seemed to be one named Aztec Gold. Does it have something to do with my being an archaeologist specializing in precolumbian civilizations?;)
Anyway, this colour almost called me when I was looking at Jacquard`s colour charts.
So off to the washing machine the fishies went-yes, shortcut dyeing, but how well worth it!
On first picture paired with Aquamarine Fish wrap.

GD: Zara Seychelles and Summer Moss.

Zara Seychelles was my second gradation and -probably according to the law of beginner`s luck-came out perfect. I used a mix of Robin`s Egg and Aquamarine for one half, and Rusty Orange and Yellow for the other, and the wrap dyed was a new Ellevill`s Zara White :






Although I loved it, the gradation seemed too green for me, so I overdyed it, using Teal. That`s how Summer Moss was born:








This wrap also lives in a new home now.

GD: Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries

This gradation was my first ever and was done on a new Didymos Chiara in size 6.
Chiara is somehow sturdy and canvas-looking, and seemed perfect to start with, as it is also reasonably priced.
I used Jacquard Procion MX dyes-colours of Raspberry and Chocolate, both luscious and vibrant.
This is what came out:







It wasn`t perfect, and although the gradation itself was quite smooth (with no harsh lines), there were patches of darker areas especially within the pink belt. This was caused by tignt folding of the wrap attached to not enough amount of hangers.
Nevertheless, it looked really nice and found its` home quickly-living with a lovely mama now:)

Gradation dyeing-beginnings:)

As many people dyeing babywearing wraps, I`ve decided to start my own blog as well, to keep record of my projects.
The beginning was hard-I had to spend ages browsing and reading sometimes contradictory descriptions of gradation dyeing with fiber reactive dyes.
In the end, I had to literally create my own recipee, which I am still improving, as it turned out-every wrap is different and behaves differently with various dyes.
The first dye task was quite painful-I still didn`t figure out what suspension to use and what proportion of dye, salt and soda should be.
Thankfully, it is getting better;)
Next couple of post will show my finished dye jobs.
I hope that this blog will also become home of my other, non-dyeing projects at some point.