Ice Dye - Updated

Some wet, some dried

So I was browsing Pinterest, as always, and was looking for new dye techniques.  I came across a few posts with some really pretty fabrics that were made using a technique called ice dying.  I decided that it would be a really suitable pattern for making bow ties, so I took a trip to my local craft store, ran into one of my aunts and one of my cousins there, got some necessary supplies, and got to work.  I ended up following this tutorial.

Just pretend like I rotated it.

This is my first time working with soda ash, so once I see how this turns out, I might consider investing in more from here on out.  I just wanted to use the normal storage tubs I always use, so I found this rubber basket thing that I decided to cut the bottom out of and I figured I would use that as a rack on top of the tub.

A long 20 minutes later...

After the fabric soaked in the soda ash, I dumped out the water and used the same tub.  I ultimately decided on scarlet, purple, and royal blue dye.  The tutorial said to use plastic spoons, but I couldn't find any since Mom rearranged the pantry, so I just used these little bathroom cups.

Clockwise from top: royal blue, scarlet, purple.

A quick trip to the kitchen for ice later, I was ready to start the fun part.

The setup

In retrospect, I probably didn't need to cut the basket apart, but it makes potential adaptation to a larger container easier.

About 5 minutes in

It's hard to believe, but somewhere under that ice that looks like charcoal is a piece of fabric about to have a lot of color thrust upon it.

I thought the melting ice looked really cool. 

Well, I have no idea how this is going to turn out.  I guess we'll find out in about 24 hours.

UPDATE

This is a second batch.

I ended up rinsing the first piece of fabric after about 16 hours because I panicked when I looked at it and saw a solid black lump.  I was worried that I used way too much dye and that it would be so dark that all the colors would blend together into some form of dark mass.  Once I washed it and let it air dry, I was pleasantly surprised.

The bottom left one is fully dry.

In the picture, the light purple one in the bottom left corner is the first piece I did.  The other three are still wet from being washed, so I'm looking forward to see how they look once they're dry.  I did let those sit for about 24 hours though, so the color had a little more time to saturate the fabric.  They may turn out a little lighter than what I would like, since I used about half the amount of dye in these than I did for the first one.  I look at them, and they remind me a lot of watercolor paintings.  I really like how this turned out, and will definitely be using this technique again in the future.