Into the light

The pretty creatures illustrating this post are not the result of a week's frenzied dyeing and sewing. They are resurrected beasts, cuffs and brooches that up until yesterday were a motley pile of half-finished (and downright abandoned) projects, all in gluggy dishwater purple-grey-brown-green hues. Since my shift into the world of colour and light I haven't been able to look at dark colours much less work with them, so I had a huge pile of unwanted murky cuff bases. I don't have a pic of them (I always forget the before shot!) but this old shot should give you an idea:

Blechy.

So anyway, while I was shopping the other day I noticed some small packets of powder in what i call 'the nana section' of the supermarket cleaning isle. It's a little corner right on the end where they stock all the weird old stuff that modern people don't seem to have a use for- leather cream, brass polish, mothballs, fly papers etc. I like these things for no other reason than they're practical and remind me of my childhood in the most nostalgic way, and I'm the sort of person who enjoys practical things and reliving my childhood. But I've got enough Brasso, and the thing I discovered that we're talking about here was dye remover.


It's essentially a powder of some sodium stinky-pants stuff that smells like a combination of pink sherbet and perm solution, and you tip it into a bucket of hot water, dump your unfortunately marked garments in it and come back an hour later. I chose the one rather boldly stamped with the phrase 'for whites only' because it was 4 dollars cheaper than the colour one and I wanted something with no remorse.



Bucket, water, powder...it only took 10 minutes, and I was left with this delightful rainbow of dusty, bleached out confections of lemon yellow, sugar pink and sea foam green. EXACTLY the sort of colours I've been looking for.

A recently re-decorated studio shelf. Note the colours..!

I find a simple magic in the fact that I took a big box of work that epitomised everything I want to leave behind me, and with a little old-fashioned practicality, turned it into a big box of everything I currently deem to be good and wanted in my world.

For those who want to try their own hand at bringing the light- this is the product used. (I recommend a well ventilated room, or if you can, do it outside.) Hooray for the joy of toxic powders!