Help with doing a mandala on silk

[Michelle]

I have another question if anyone is still following this thread. When you do a lotus blossum mandala, how do you keep the adjacent "petals" from touching one another (see where the arrows point in the image below)? In the picture below, the dark "bleed" on what will be the center of the pattern (to the right of the top right arrow) is actually from the dark colored petal next to it, not from the black that I'm using to separate the colors between petals. Again, this may be more of an issue because I'm doing a smallish pattern.

[tiedyejudy]

One thing I learned from Tom and Martine's video is to use a 'project box' for the more complex patterns.  It is a plastic storage bin with a rack that is constructed of plastic coated closet rack, cut to fit inside the box.  You place your item in the box, and as you dye, you can prop the 'petals' up by placing them next to the wall of the bin.  Also, by dyeing on the rack, you avoid puddles of dye that might wick up and overdye the petal area.


Judy

[Michelle]

One thing I learned from Tom and Martine's video is to use a 'project box' for the more complex patterns.  It is a plastic storage bin with a rack that is constructed of plastic coated closet rack, cut to fit inside the box.  You place your item in the box, and as you dye, you can prop the 'petals' up by placing them next to the wall of the bin.  Also, by dyeing on the rack, you avoid puddles of dye that might wick up and overdye the petal area.

I have the video and a project box, but I can't use the box for this project (11" x 11" silk handkerchief) because the project is too small and will fall through the "shelves". You may not be able to tell from the picture, but I'm using a small plastic plate as a "box" and propping the piece up out of the dye with the drinking straws as the "shelf". The actual issue is that if you tie the project tightly enough to resist the dye spreading too much (I'm using Tom and Martine's tying technique) the "petals" are pushed up against one another. I tried separating them as much as possible before I began dying. The project is fairly stiff once it's tied, however, and what tends to happen if you separate the petals on one side is that the petals on the other side are pushed together. Hopefully this gives a better idea of what's going on.

[pburch]

Try buying some thin, stiff opaque plastic report covers, and inserting them in between as separators. The drug store usually has some of these. Or try wrapping each bulb in plastic wrap or a small plastic bag.

Paula

[Michelle]

Try buying some thin, stiff opaque plastic report covers, and inserting them in between as separators. The drug store usually has some of these. Or try wrapping each bulb in plastic wrap or a small plastic bag.

Yeah, I was kind of coming to the conclusion that I'd have to put in a barrier of some sort but hadn't thought about bagging the petals. Thanks.   FWIW, I'd actually have to do the plastic wrap or what have you during the dyeing (just uncovering the particular petal I'm working on) as the bleeding happened during the dyeing. I'd probably have to keep it bagged during the steaming. It actually didn't turn out too bad this time. If you look really, really closely, you can see where there's a bit of purple on the outside edge of the red center section where the dark blue came in contact with the red, but it kind of gets lost in the black outline.

Here's the latest (the one I showed tied). The definition between petals is definitely improving. Unfortunately, I managed to drop in in water before it was steamed, so the colors are kind of muddy looking. Long vinegar pre-soak (several hours), tightly tied (single wrap slip knot with extra knots to anchor it), thickened the black dye I use between the petals and for the mottling outside the mandala with Superclear. I also used a very fine brush to apply the black dye for the outlines with more control, instead of an eyedropper like I had been.

[Michelle]

Woo hoo! This is pretty close to what I want for my mandalas. I think next time I may tie slightly less tightly and thicken all my dyes, rather than just the black. I think that will smooth out the edges between colors a bit. Basically this one was done with the same process as the last one, I just didn't drop this one in water so the colors turned out right this time. I also added a touch of yellow and fuschia to the black to correct the blue tone it has. I did a chaos scrunch using gold and black outside the mandala, but for some reason the black isn't showing. BTW, all of these have been photographed after I ironed them, not that you can tell.