Blue Beginning

I couldn't wait any longer to use some of my indigo dyed fabrics, trims and yarns.

Photographing an egg takes more than one shot!

Speaking in Blue

Constellating

I decided to focus largely on indigo stars today and this is a close up of my favourite dip of the day: A few more:

And not all the experiments worked out - here is one I folded, stitched and tied, hoping for multiple stars shaped like the thread ones.

After dipping into indigo here is what I got:

Still a lovely pattern - and now you know the stars are there, too, but obscured by clouds :)

This last one is another stitched shibori.

Blue Muse-ing

Still horsing around with the indigo vats...

Indigo Tale

Walking on the indigo road by the light of the moon

through a forest of ferns

I came to my favourite fishing hole and pulled up a

blue blossom!

So much to discover on this indigo path...

Stars, Moons and Flowers

I backed, sandwiched, and machine quilted this table runner top I started two years ago and realize I'm out of practice! I like the back better than the front - maybe I am needing some pink to offset the recent flood of blues!

In the online Indigo class, we received our third lesson and the theme is Moons and Stars - which fits right into and builds on - some of what I have already been doing. Here is an eclipse I tried on wool:

A linen star:

And a moon on cotton sky dyed fabric:

Moon Sandwich

The weather has been great and I have done just a few more experiments in the indigo vats - after getting them back up and running, first.

I got out for a hike and for awhile the only blue was in the background. I loved the shadow shibori created by the branches here:

And the contrast of rough and smooth on this arbutus tree:

Spending time in nature leaves me feeling refreshed and full.

Resisting the Blues

I spiralled back into the indigo vats again today: I really like the finer texture on the top of this:

Here is a close up - it almost looks like I've stitched it:

And this one is done with sequin waste:

Another quick experiment I did was a needle felted bunny on a piece of indigo dyed wool blanket. It needs refining but the rather thick blanket is a good base.

I probably won't have time to try the remaining ideas I have for a day or two.

Dreaming in Blue

I awoke this morning with an image floating in my mind from a dream of what to try next with indigo and here it is after the dipping. I will be working further with this once it's dry. And I got a vat that I'd used to dye with blue glue gel resist up and running again, so I dipped a few more:

Words, patterning or any drawing is now possible - although the vat does exhaust quickly so I will continue trying other resist methods as well - but I am able to get it back to a useable state.

And another experiment - masking tape! The patterns all showed up but it works best when the tape is on both sides, as it was with the bottom piece.

I will keep wondering along...

Into More Blue

I'm continuing to explore whatever idea pops into my head to use with indigo. Here I combined itajime with arashi shibori. This part turned out well, but the patterning didn't go through the entire fabric.

And why not do a few stars, varying the values of the indigo.

As soon as I saw this linen in my stash of fabrics, I knew it was destined for a dip or two, being the year of the dragon.

And this is for our class assignment this week - a larger shibori piece. Getting the patterning to go all the way through is a challenge and I thought this would turn out darker than it did. I think it looks like eggs cracking open and flowers - both fit right into the start of spring.

I am going to do another post because I made some good discoveries today.

Sticking With the Blues

This peacock's blue outshines anything I can achieve in my vats! Here are a few samples of what I've been doing - I like how this became a butterfly pattern:

And I had an idea today to try braiding strips and then dipping the braid to see what might result. It looks kind of feathery to me.

And another idea I had was to dip using blue glue gel as a resist. I had some pieces previously prepared and I put a little liquid from the vat in a seperate small container and it worked just fine.

Since my first tests went alright, I dipped a larger piece, too, that I had drawn a few years ago using a painting by Lawren Harris for inspiration.

I have more ideas waiting to try tomorrow...