QUOTE

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way-things I had no words for." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Experimenting a little

We were talking about dyeing pearls in one of our doll groups and Diane mentioned that she dyed her pearls with Rit Dye. So I decided to try out some other dyes as well to see if those worked so here is what I did.
The fushia pink pearl is a natural pearl and I used wild plum alcohol ink to dye it.
 The one below is also a natural white pearl dyed with alcohol ink. I used Stream
 This one below is a synthetic pearl dyed with Lettuce alcohol ink
 These two are synthetic pearls the one on the left is the original colour and the one on the right is dipped in alcohal ink diluted with water and heated. I had to leave it in hot water for sometime to get this delicate pink colour.

The ones below on the left is the synthetic pearl and the one on the right is the natural freshwater pearl. I used orange Quick Color for microwave dyeing . Again I mixed a little bit in water heated it and dropped the pearls in it. These coloured more quickly but strangely the synthetic pearl took the red colour from the dye and the natural pearl took the yellow colour from the dye. I liked these the best as they were uniformly coloured


However I think colouring the pearls with the inks is also interesting as you could get swirls of colour on them if you remembered to use forceps to hold the pearls with them instead of your fingers. One has to be quick with the inks as they dry quickly because of the alcohol in them.  I foolishly used my fingers and not only did I blotch the colours but in the process coloured my fingers in very bright colours lol!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

At last

At last I am snatching a few minutes to update my blog. Have been so very busy with house redecorating and kitchen renovations that time has just flown by since I came back from my US trip. I enjoyed myself thoroughly there as always. The doll below was my challenge doll for CIFI. The theme for this year's challenge was Enchanted Forest. My doll is an exotic bird couldn't think of an original name for him so I just named him Exoteeque lol! He is the early bird of the enchanted forest who catches the worms but he does not eat them. He just keeps them as his pets. I didn't think I would win a ribbon as there were some amazing dolls so when I did get an award I was thunder struck.

 Here is a closer view of him
 A closer view of the little worm wondering if he will be swallowed up soon lol!

 He is a happy little camper.
I will visit your blogs soon but at the moment my life is a big rush so do forgive me for not visiting them yet.