...is a lot of fabric...
...and the knowledge that you have yet more fabric to play with. I just took delivery of some silk organza, to add to the silk velvet I already have. Guess who's going to be dyeing shortly? I spent much of the weekend cutting and ironing fat quarters, some for the gallery (the image above was taken there...the FQs are sitting on one of my bed quilts, which Judy has appropriated to cover a large chest. It was one of the first quilts I ever made, long before I learned to dye. I sleep under it in the summer, so Judy better find something else to cover the chest by July!
I'm mulling about whether or not to start selling more complex hand dyes. The ones you see above are low water immersion, but I have just cut up some discharge dyed fabric, which takes a bit more work than a simple low immersion piece. I try to keep prices as low as possible; at the moment, a simple FQ costs £3, which is directly comparable with commercial fabric, and I use the best quality fabric I can find, which is usually a higher thread count than most commercial prints. I don't know whether people will pay more for more complex fabrics, but I'm going to try them out on Etsy this week. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, I'll show you some of the fabric tomorrow (haven't photographed it yet!). And I'll talk you through the technical stuff, if you are wondering what I mean by low immersion (which has nothing to do with a bucket on the floor instead of the table...).
I'd be grateful for any feedback you have about buying handdyes, and their price...
2 comments:
A very tasty and tempting pile of fabrics, Marion; look forward to seeing the complex ones too.
I think you're wrong to try to compete pricewise with commercial fabrics. You should instead educate ppl about the individual nature of hand dyed fabrics and quality of fabrics you use so you can get a decent return on your investment in materials, time and expertise. Otherwise you might as wrap them up with a bow (because you're giving them away and not honouring your own work). Just my opininon.
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