Day 3

Our decision to not cut the fabric presented a problem when it was time to rinse the dye out. Even if we rinsed the approximately 40 metres of fabric by hand, where would we hang it to dry?



At this point, we decided it made more sense to cut the fabric at the points where it would wrap around the lamp posts. These three cuts would allow us to rinse and dry the fabric in the washer and dryer at school.



We began the task of unrolling the fabric, which had a very unpleasant smell from being left to sit in the chemical water for a week.



Luckily, once it had been washed, the smell disappeared and we were quite happy to discover that the dye had worked perfectly.





We then began sewing the pieces back together, and placed grommets on the ends so that we would be able to tie the material securely to the posts.

Day 2

Today we began the work on our Christo inspired project.



Emily purchased a bolt of fabric from a theatre sale, so we had plenty, but before we began we wanted to make sure it would be long enough.



After stretching it out we were quite pleased to see that it would be just enough.



Next we had to decide if we wanted to leave the fabric as it was, or if we wanted to dye it.



We were inspired by the colour and texture created by the water stains on the outside walls of the Birch building, so we made the decision to dye the fabric using direct application Procion MX. We headed back to the classroom to get started.



Dyeing such a large piece of fabric presented some challenges. We wanted to keep it in one continuous piece, so we were not able to wash it before dyeing because it would not fit in the washing machine in the classroom. However, from our Surface Design class we knew it was possible to dye without scouring the fabric first, and in some cases it actually produces a darker colour than if the fabric had been washed first, so we decided to take the risk.



We wet the fabric as we dyed, hoping to create a spread out, drippy, natural looking effect. We rolled the material, wrapping it with plastic sheets. Once everything was done, we wrapped the entire bolt in a sheet, and placed it under one of the tables to batch. Generally you only have to leave it for 24 hours, but we waited until the next week to rinse.

Day One

Today was the first day of the Christo assignment. We toured the campus looking at potential spots for our project.

Some of the ideas we had included:

• Wrapping lampposts leading to cafeteria (from library)
• Curtain cover in undercover area outside library
• Covering flagpole on top of library building
• A runner of fabric up the library stairs
• Wrapping over benches/sleeping area in library
• Covering a cement wall in or outside of birch
• Ramming a curtain across birch windows

The ideas we liked best were covering the sleeping space in the library, and wrapping the lamp posts leading to the cafeteria. We all liked the idea of creating a space that could be entered, but realized that it did not really fit in with Christo's aesthetic, so after speaking with our instructor we decided to wrap the lamp posts, creating a running line from the library to the Birch Building.