Monday, June 30, 2008

Dyeing Tibetan Lamb

After much deliberation, I took the plunge and tried my hand at dyeing Tibetan lamb. Of the information I found on the 'net, much of it was contradictory. Cold water, hot water, liquid dye, powder dye, etc. I ultimately used information found at http://www.dollmakersjourney.com/ (thanks ladies!)

I did the dyeing outside, and as it was a breezy day dried the pelts outside, too. This is the first one attempted. I wanted a natural red color, so mixed four colors of Rit dye. I've got two more outside drying. One is a darker auburn, the other a light brownish color - I may stick that one in the pot again.

Unfortunately, I rolled my ankle as I was stepping off the deck yesterday. The pain and the accompanying crunch as I landed made me think I broke something. My first thought was "oh crap, how in the world am I going to walk to work, at work, and along the Las Vegas strip." It's swollen, bruised, and still very painful to walk.

This morning I mixed up another pot of dye (just two colors this time), and I'm not sure if I'll like this one. I may need to add a little something.

3 comments:

Dixie Redmond said...

Oh, my - those ankles are so important! Take care!

Angela illustrator said...

Hi,
I'm dying Mongolian lamb, petrol green, I was wondering if you new any kind of spray to fix the colour? Cheers X

Deanna Hogan said...

Hi Angela,

Thanks for your comment/question. I haven't used anything to fix the color on my Tibetan lamb. But that being said, I try to keep my dolls out of the sunlight as that fades even my fabric stash. I haven't seen any degradation in the color intensity yet, but the years will tell.

What are you using to dye your Mongolian lamb? I haven't tried many dyes, but there may be some information on the Dharma Trading site - they sell a variety of dyes and have some how-to tutorials: http://www.dharmatrading.com/

Good luck!

Deanna