Unlike the low-tech potato-stamped bags of the last post, two of these cord baskets benefited from a bit of a technological intervention. When I told Nick I was planning on dip-dyeing some some things, he insisted on building me a machine that would do the work for me. As it turns out, it was exactly what I needed:
The yellow bag and the red basket both took a ride on the dyeing machine, and although it’s hard to tell with the yellow, you can see the subtle gradation of color on the red basket. The yellow bag was the first non-round cord creation of mine, and it was a bit trickier than the standard circular basket. After dyeing it, I attached a couple hand-stitched leather handles with some brass rivets:
I dyed the cord for the green and blue basket before I sewed it together. I like how it turned out, but next time I’ll probably soak the cord before dyeing it so that the color disperses a little more.
I’ll have some more handmade Christmas presents to show you soon!
I love it, those are beyond amazing!
Love these! I was experimenting sewing cord baskets a while back too, I wanted to try dying them too! Our local hardware store had some wild colors of cord too that I’d like to experiment with too, like neon pink!
I’m interested in that ombré machine. Is it linked to your computer? A timed lowering device?
Your creations are beautiful.
thank you! the dyeing machine needs to be linked to a computer if i want to make any changes to the frequency that the motor pulls the basket up, but now that i’ve got it where i like it, i can just plug it in and go. if you have any more questions, let me know! i can get the creator himself to answer them, since i only have a very basic understanding of how it works.