Hand Made

I like to make most of the cards I give - and I had been longing to use my pink snow dyed fabric. When I was a child, my mother made some of my clothes, including some shorts with straps and a bib and although most of my life I have not been a sewer, I have saved items of clothing that held special meaning for me. Mom had severe rheumatoid arthritus, which makes the embroidered butterflies she put on the front of the bib even more special. As well as transformation, butterflies remind me of her. And they seem joyful to me - so light, beautiful and free. So I will add them to Palace of the Soul to honour nurturance and these other qualities.

The wonderfully curling bark I pictured in the last blog post, gave hardly any colour to some silk I wrapped with it and steamed, so I used some onion skins to add a little more colour and will keep over dyeing it until I am pleased with its markings.

I also had a little drawing fun and while I may not stitch these, they would be very simple to do.

The track lighting is now up in my studio, as it was quite dark and not really useable after dusk. I've also expanded out into my old studio, moving paints and dyes, stamps and stencils and all kinds of things to the drawers and shelves vacated by my fabrics, which are now upstairs. Still lots more to do before it's complete, but when it is, I'll be feeling like this:

Woman in the Moon

It was such a pleasure to be stitching, yesterday, and I'm eager to add more to this. I added tracks to the sand, as well, when I went to watch the waves surge in the wind.

I saw moons

but the dye in my pot at home must have seeped in, in spite of the resist,

So I ended up with a cloth awash in colour.

I know the moon is there, even if I can't see it.

Renewing What I Have

Coleslaw for dinner, so why not pop the wilted outer leaves into a dye bath with some linen? Almost looks like an octopus lurking in there... I got this soft violet colour and the other fabrics here are ecualyptus bark dyed and plain white for comparision.

And then I moved on to cherry bark, using shibori techniques and getting a different and deeper brown, which I like.

When I put a variety of small bits of fabric into the same dye pot later, it was nearly spent and here's the much lighter colour it produced.

I also came up with a pattern on paper that I like and tried out variations of it and am thinking about how I will translate it to fabric. I'm basing my repeat pattern on a very meaningful symbol I developed from four shapes about ten years ago for my business card that has also been a signature on my quilts.

Trial and Error

Natural dyeing with local plants can be like spinning a wheel, hoping for a certain result and sometimes getting lucky. I'm still working with wool and eucalyptus but not getting the bright orange colour I am trying to replicate, in spite of varying my methods. Seeing sheep, other animals and the displays at the Saanich Fair last night was a welcome and completely different kind of dip into local colour.

Here are some of the leaves I collected and am using.

And the result, while still lovely, is largely brown:

So my idea for how I'm putting these together is changing, but there's more to come from the dye pot...

Seeing Patterns

The sun in the sky last night reminded me of the orange leaf shapes on the wool I've been dyeing. Here is the front and back of the eucalyptus/oak dyeing using the same leaves as in the previous post and getting a more muted look:

And some stamped symmetry I was exploring in yesterday's class.

I also did further oak and eucalyptus experimentation - the one on the far right is on silk velvet and the leaf images are less defined because of the nap.

I used up all my leaves, so today I found and gathered more - and also was fortunate to find several chunks of different kinds of bark to try.

Oakay

As soon as I saw this stained, oak leaf embroidered cloth, I thought 'why not dye it with leaves and bark from a Garry oak tree to give it new life?' So I did...

The imprints are very pale - I've darkened this photo so you can see one. Like ghosts in the cloth, the essence of oak.

I unexpectedly got a lovely soft shade of pink along with the browns, creams and bits of green and gold. The strip of brown reminds me of a tree trunk and the shibori effect is where the ties touched the cloth. Unfortunately the photo does not do it justice.

Improvements

Rhodos on silk left in the sun: A tear...

led to a patch...

that adds interest.

Still catching up on posting some of what I've done over the last while.

Felt Fun

I have been having such fun putting this felted piece together today, learning as I go about combining a variety of materials with my needle felting machine. I've begun hand stitching light and shadow on the leaves, now. And I also made some silk paper which is partially transparent when held up to the light.

And here is some wet felting and natural dyeing that may end up with these beads on it - or not.

Here's the whole of it:

I also natural dyed more silk shibori and over dyed other silk with eucalyptus leaves I picked last year -which only yielded slight colour.

Makeovers

Pumpkin patch, nine patch, why not? Today I plucked these flowers from a box on the verandah and they embraced the silk handily.

Elm leaves turned out to be great for leaving their pattern and colour, too. The fabric they are on is a previously onion dyed silk, and I love the purples, pinks, blacks and greens this yielded. I also did one on plain white silk and the leaves left their colour pretty much as a straight transfer.

I put these salmon coloured maple leaves on pale green rayon and the result is less interesting then I had hoped, but I can improve it with more dyeing.

The Milky Way

Colourful and varied seaweed on the beach this morning. And this driftwood seems to be a grinch-like face sticking out its tongue.

I used Garry oak leaves to dye some cotton, using milk as a mordant this time and it worked pretty well.

I can see veins on some of the leaves but I'd like to add colour from another local plant, still.

Waiting Is the Hardest Part

Waiting to open natural dyeing bundles can be like watching a slug move. Yet I know the fabrics need time to pick up the colours and patterns and changes are happening everyday, just like how the waters rearrange what's on the beach daily, too.

I waited three days and opened the small red maple leaf bundles of silk velvet

and cotton and it was worth the wait!

Roses Are Red...

After cutting some of the last roses in my yard, I just couldn't waste the lovely green leaves... So I tried using them to dye cotton.

Here is the entire half metre piece and there are a few longish Eucalyptus leaves I threw in, as well.

And this piece is now basted and ready to quilt.