Samosa Dyeing

I caught up with a couple of the students from my "Any Colour You Like" workshop on the weekend. They brought along the results of their dyeing efforts. Here's K's tablecloth: It's a triangle fold technique that I love: the fabric is first fan folded into a narrow strip. That strip is then fan-folded again, but at a 45 degree angle on every second fold. The result is a solid triangle of fabric. I first used this technique at the end of a workshop--in my characteristic waste-not-and-enjoy-a-surprise fashion. So I rested each side of the triangle in turn on a small amount of dye in each of the three primary colours: red on one side, blue on the second side and yellow on the third. The results are dramatic.

K liked my sample and wanted to dye a large linen-cotton blend tablecloth. It was a lot of work for her to fold it, but you can see the result. She also came up with the name, "samosa" for the technique. That's what I love about teaching. There's always a new idea and the students' enthusiasm is so infectious.