Trying New Things

Winter's Frost

Being the do-it-yourself kind of person I am, I thought I’d try my hand at dying my own silk ribbon to use for my jewelry.  I had found these absolutely gorgeous raku leaves on Etsy and I knew I had to use them for my wire wrapped jewelry.  After making the pendants I wanted to find the perfect cording to accent the metallic hues on the leaves and the dark brown copper wire I had used.  I couldn’t for the life of me find what I wanted in any store (who knew grey dyed silk ribbon would be so elusive?) and didn’t really have the time to scour the internet for the perfect price and then wait by the mailbox.  So I had five yards of white silk ribbon and a pack of black powdered dye.  “Do not screw this up,” was the only thing going through my head since I have never dyed fabric before.  Two applications (water wasn’t hot enough the first time so the dye didn’t take well) and very black fingertips later, I had my grey ribbon!  Yay!  I didn’t even slop dye water all over my kitchen like I thought I was doomed to do since I have white cabinets!  It matches beautifully with the pendants as well.  Perhaps next time I can try mixing my own colors, but I won’t get ahead of myself just yet!

The necklace in the photograph is available at my Etsy store.  Click the Etsy badge in the column to the right or click this link to go to my store and check it out!  I will also have several other styles of this necklace (and tons more jewelry) available at my jewelry party coming up on November 5th at 7pm, if there are any left they will be listed on Etsy afterwards.  If you’d like to attend, please email me at heversonart@gmail.com for details.