MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Chemistry? Science?

Let me preface this by saying .... 
I didn't take chemistry in school because I was in the commercial (secretarial) stream. 

For those of you who would like to create a similarly outstanding piece of fabric to use in your art, I will do a mini-tutorial here.

1.  First you take a perfectly good piece of dupioni silk - mine was about 6" x 36".
2.  Fill your kettle with 2 cups of water and plug it in.
3.  While you are waiting for it to boil, place ten tea bags into a glass container.
4.  Unplug boiling kettle, and pour water over tea bags.
5.  Add perfectly good piece of dupioni silk.

Are you following me so far?  Any questions???

6.  Let stand two hours.
7.  Remove perfectly good piece of dupioni silk from tea bath and wring out.
8.  Take downstairs to laundry tub and pour bleach over it.
9.  Stir to be sure it's mixed well.
 10.  Check email.

Still no questions?   Are you sure???
11.  20 minutes later remember perfectly good piece of dupioni silk in bleach bath.
12.  Run to laundry room and rescue NOT so perfectly good piece of dupioni silk from bleach.
13.   Rinse strenuously while watching perfectly NOT so good piece of dupioni silk turn into shreds.

Please add a link in the comment section of this post to guide us to see what you do with this tutorial.












18 comments:

  1. Oops!!!! LOLLOLLOLLOL............repeat after me, I will never check email while working with nasty, smelly, chemicals.....I'm sure someone who did take chemistry (not me) will tell you if it's a good idea to try to bleach silk or if it was toast from the start!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Now Sister,
    What part of getting on the computer and losing track of time did you not figure into the equation. I say they need to make timers on these laptops. You get up one morning and sit in a comfy chair, log on to the computer simply to read a few emails. The next thing you know it's dark outside and time for bed. Well, it's not that bad but somedays
    I lose all track of time.
    If you had a timer on that computer you would still have perfectly good silk dupioni, I think? I am not having a good feeling about mixing bleach and silk. I do think what you have left there would make a lovely bird nest!
    Cheers Sister,
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  3. lol! Oh well, it will still be useful for something. One day you will need exactly those bits of fabric for a project. Then you will want more of it and now you will know how to do it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hate to ask but why the bleach?
    Sounded okay to that point. I am the bleach queen around this house. If it needs cleaning it gets bleached. Half my clothes are covered in white spots. Took me awhile to figure out that Soft Scrub with bleach actually had bleach in it and that was making all the white spots.

    Sometimes we are not so bright.

    Hgs

    FredaB

    ReplyDelete
  5. Never mind, I'm sure you'll find a good use for shattered silk. Perhaps you should have stuck with making Walnut Ink?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hah, I'm so glad there's someone else out there with a bleach fiasco. Mine didn't happen to silk though. Can you start all over leaving the computer turned off?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bleach after--why????? Unless you did it shibori style after? Send me shattered silk---you know i'll use it :)Does it still have any of the same colouring, because that is earthily gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  8. how funny!! it looks good to me though, in a shredded kind of way!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous1:01 PM

    MA...what were you thinking! A perfectly good piece of dupioni should not be fooled with!!!! Oh well it would probably make a good background for a card, book page, fabric jewellery or ATC.
    Mrs Noofy

    ReplyDelete
  10. You should have asked me MA and I would have told you that dupioni silk does not like bleach at all--ask me how I know?
    If you hang onto the said piece maybe it will make great hair for one of your dolls one day.
    Oh and people just wouldn't understand why you were doing it but I do--wink wink.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Normally bleach is NOT suitable for wool or silk, unless you have an ulterior motive? I'm guessing from Doreen's cryptic comment that there's a clue there. I've had a few horrors with bleach myself, and a few wins, so hopefully your silk will be useful for some project or other, doll's hair sounds intriguing.
    Thanks for brightening my day,
    Hooroo,
    Christine in Guildford NSW not Victoria !!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. ooo you ARE brave and what fabulous results
    thanks so very much for the tutorial MA!!!
    oxo

    ReplyDelete
  13. Step 14:Use it for appliquing onto cards,fabric journals so on and so forth. Think mountains,tree trunks,mud etc etc :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm sure it will find a perfect use one day. The color is gorgeous. That's the problem with multi-tasking...you end up with something interesting but not what you were going for.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hmm...interesting process. I think you should take the next step and apply fire. Duponi burns well.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for leaving comments! I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy life to talk to me. It's wonderful to know that someone is actually reading my mumblings and even more fun if I can connect with you and visit your blog.