Someone asked me awhile ago and then again today on the Welcome Mat, how to build yourself a good stash, I'd thought I'd share my reply with you in case you want to know too.
You can substitute the word buy for dye!!
When we begin to dye we often do direct dyeing, a set of wool for a certain project.
This is good.
I found I couldn’t always anticipate my needs. I thought something might be right but it wasn’t. I tried another approach, the built stash!
What decisions do we need to consider if we want a delicious toothsome pile of wool with loads of depth and usefulness ?
It is sort of like buying an outfit, you need to create wardrobe staples that can be used in many ways.
For the studio I make all colours in the 12 colour wheel, plus browns, plus neutrals.
I make wanderings and spots, and marbleizing, crazy casserole and unusually dyed pieces like shibori or water colour dyeing. I have a wide array of over dyed and as is textures too.
I’m also supplying a selection of people with vastly ranging needs.
I don’t use spot dyes myself anymore, at least not the conventional ones and if I were you, I would take into consideration what types of dyed wool you feel most comfortable using. Those are the types you will make.
If you tend toward duller colours, make more of those. Be careful to always create a range of values. If you need to butt green in a tree next to blue in a sky you will be a sorrowful puppy if those two wools are the same saturation and value, it will turn that section of your rug into a no-see-um!
So here is what I would try to do if I wanted to dye an amazing magical stash.
Dye all colours from around the colour wheel, have three values of each, have a bright, a very dull and a one at 50% saturation, neither bright nor dull. I would have a very dark one and a very light one. That means you will have about 8 selections from each colour. Probably making a quarter yd
of most of them and a ½ yd of a few will be good. I like to also have one each of something that is turning toward the next colours in the wheel to make a blender colour. If I was making yellow, I would have one slightly warmer , more orange and one slightly cooler, more greenish. If it was blue I'd also add in one that is a little more purple but not blue violet and one that is a little more green but not blue green.
You must and I repeat must have some of the colours you dislike. Say orange is your least favorite or purple, you need to create some of those even if you don’t want them. If you love the colour blue and it plays a big role in your rug making then nothing will make your blues stand at attention like a
little orange, red brown and rust.
If you can anticipate what you might be making, say a scene of a sheet on the clothesline during a snowstorm… you will need lots of whites. If you followed my advice you will have arrange of very lights to draw on from each colour as well as a range of “blacks”.
If you are depicting water or sky, you will need more blues (always add black to blue for the best knocking back to sane of those bright blue dyes).
I come from the more is more school, I’m not too likely to make a sky say using a yard of the same stuff. I might have 12 related colours I'm mixing and blending to create it. Free yourself to use your wool in this expansive way.
PS One must have the bandaid of colours that goes with most any rug palette - teal, make some of that. A recipe - 3 parts turquoise or blue green to one part black. Let your part ( tsp) measure vary as you need values. Use a 1/28th spoon over a 1/2 yd for a light colour or a teaspoon for a very dark one over 1/2 yd.
I hope this helps.
