One idea to Another

Have you ever had something on your mind that you thought would work and you hoped it would because you had become so attached to that ONE idea but as you go and try it out you realise that it won’t work and if you STILL want to continue with it, it’s going to take a lot of time(time that you didn’t plan on using for this idea) and a lot of effort (effort that you planned to use for another idea)?

Well this was the dilemma I was facing on Thursday. As I have started to develop the pattern for my suit I started to focus on the material, colour and print that I wanted to use. After a lot of thought I decided that I wanted a rusty type look that was inspired by the wall in this image.

First I tried dyeing on a wool fabric(specifically meant for dyeing) and I kind of liked the sample but it still was not the exact image I had in my head. So I sat down with the dye technician, David, (who is amazing) and he said that I won’t be able to accomplish this effect from dyeing. But as I am Delores and once I set my mind on something I will find a way to complete it. We started going through different methods that I could use to hopefully attain my desired look.

Method 1: Try digital printing as this could give me the exact image I wanted (getting all excited). We went over to speak to the digital print technician. She said it would be possible but I had to find a better quality of the image.

Strike one, the image came from a book so that was the best quality. I got my image online and once I zoomed in, the quality was really bad.

 Strike two, even if I decided to use digital printing there was no wool fabric to paint on. At that moment I began laughing  inside to stop myself from panicking. The only fabric choice that I could use if I became really desperate in case every other method did not work, was a satin and cotton mix fabric. I stood there thinking who would buy a satin and cotton mix fabric tailored suit?  Unimpressed, I asked what was the next option?

Method 2: to use a reactive dye and hand paint the pattern that I wanted on to the wool fabric. This sounded difficult and it was something  I was willing to try because I was not letting go of this idea.

After speaking to the other dye technician, we mixed my desired colours and started to paint away. As I had never done this before, my first three attempts looked like my 1 year old Goddaughter grabbed a paint brush and uncontrollably painted them . They were horrible.  But with the reassuring words of David, the dye technician, encouraging me and telling me that I will get better, it’s just a matter of me getting used to doing this and becoming more confident. I continued and started to get a bit better. I came up with two more samples which aren’t great but they look better than the first three.

I am going to continue experimenting with this technique and hopefully it might work out in my favour  Ii not I might have to give it up and move on to the next!

Here are a Few of the samples that I did, none of the came out the way I wanted!