My next batch of cotton and silks and a few Charity finds.

Here are my latest creations. This is just cotton bundled in rusty cans.

 This is  a rusty can and cranberry steamed bundle.

 This bundle was sweet potatoes and a rusty aluminum cans.

 This bundle was sweet potatoes, cranberries and rusty cans.

 This bundle was metal cans and cotton steamed. The white lines are from being wrapped up in elastic bands.

 Love the designs on this cotton. I find it amazing that rusty metal and eleastic bands can create this!

 I had some saffon which was out of date really, so decided to use it for dyeing. Wow..beautiful. Cotton and silk..the brighter colour is silk.

 The other night l split a bottle of blue ink and reached for a cloth....."light bulb" moment.....what would it dye like?  Quite well actually. My husband's comment was, " Only great, if it is not your husband's or  son's shirt"! Men what would you do with them!

Then again, last week, l had a small drop of green food dye left in ther bottle, not enough to use....would it dye? answer yes!!!! So rich and vibrant.

 The next piece was dyed using a few petal's from my pink and white orchid. Was really surprized l got a result but it is beautiful.

 This next piece of silk was first dyed in the orchid water and then tie-dyed in dye left from the metal dye.

 Silk wrapped round a stone, tied with elastic bands and then put in the old tea dye.

 Look what l managed to get today.....some more leaves.. You can guess what l will be doing tomorrow?

 I had a good day in the secondhand shops yesterday...5 deep picture boxes, a huge white cotton tablecloth, some silk material and some threads. I am so happy. Good start to the New Year tomorrow.

Happy New Year everyonex

2 new pieces of embroidery on canvas.

More embroidery which l have started or finished earlier today. First is a piece of canvas and the threads, which were bundle dyed, wrapped round rusty cans and ecualyptus leaves and then wrapped with elastic bands . All was boiled and steamed in a liquid of tea for 1 hour, left to cool over night, then not opened for 3 weeks. I am getting better at not opening the bundles straight away...it is not easy but well worth the wait!Ha!

This second piece is also canvas and boiled at the same time as the above piece. Although this piece was only wrapped round a patterned piece of metal.

 Here are some of my naturally dyed cotton and silk threads.

Just to say that these pieces of  canvas had been ripped of a larger piece of canvas,  that l was originally using as a table top cover. I wanted to see how canvas would take to dyeing and so as this was at hand...it got used! On some areas of the canvas, there is still some paint, as l am a very messy artist. I personally think this adds to the over all work rather than hinder. It is really all about recycling.

A great giveaway at Alpha Stamps and my first piece of embroidery.

Just before l start showing you my embroidery...can you see the image of Alpha Stamps?

Well you must GO TO THEIR SITE..Why? because they have an amazing giveaway and they have amazing "stuff" in their shop! Oh..then come back here and carry on reading about "ME" of course!!

Here as promised last night, is my first piece of finished embroidered Eco Dyed material. The threads were also Eco dyed using leaves , rust, coffee and bark. I really am very pleased with this, even if l say so myself!

I have entitled it "Town and Country". 

Bye boots and other stuff!

I love these boots but the other day while wearing them..disaster stuck! I got a very wet foot. Had the snow gone over the top of my boot or...oh no!..had they a hole in them? We decided to put them in a basin of water to find out....this boot was soaking inside but we couldn't see the hole! So tony...event as ever... had the great idea of filling boot with water and blowing into boot. Result!

 Result yes but not the one l wanted. The boot had a small hole and 2 long slash cuts on it. How? I have no idea but that meant they had to be thrown away, as to difficult to mendand be genuinely waterproof again.

But my "don't throw away but use" approach came to the fore!!!! If l had a garden they would have become flower pots but l don't..... Sorry Dayna, can't afford the postage to the States!Ha

 So l decided to cut the tops off and keep them for a"Future Art" project. You should have heard Tony groan!Hax

 I have finish one of my small wall hangings for the Aunt of my Daughter-in-law, for Christmas and here   it is.

I have also started to embroider my first Eco dyed fabric..and really enjoying it. Will show the finished result tomorrow. Oh forgot to mention....the threads are dyed by me too!

A Robin, snow and dyeing!

Today we have had no more snow but it is still around.(great!) This robin in the birdfeeder, was the only bird l saw on the way to town today. I stood and watched him for a while, didn't want to get to close or he would have flown away. I really love robins..

Right..more results from my Eco dyeing. The yellow below was the first dye boil from white onion skins. Really pleased with it. This is on white 100% cotton.

This is one of only two ofpieces of interesting silk pieces that was created by wrapping and boiling  in seaweed. The beige base is from tea which l redyed the piece in to try and add some depth to it.Quite pleased with the end result.

This is a piece of the bedspread soaked in tea and then boiled for an hour. The dark brown on some of the embrodiery is l think from the aluminum saucepan it was boiled in.

Dyed white cotton embrodiery thread...coffee and tea.

This piece of the bedspread was dyed in tea first, then beetroot was placed on it and it was made into a bundle and steamed .....Find it very hard to keep the red/pink colour when using beetroot...any ideas welcome!!! Still quite interesting though.

The next image is of some of the dyeing experiments l have created and they are waiting tobe used in quilts, an embroidery piece and so on. Really am excited how it is all progressing.

This piece of silk is the result of steaming a bundle with seaweed in it. Interesting but NO wow factor!

This next piece is a piece of silk which was wrapped round rusted tins and steamed....just love the end result.

A piece of silk which was wrapped round Red onion skins and stones and steamed. Old fashioned tie-dye. Great result.

This is silk wrapped round tins and rusty items and tied with elastic bands...then steamed. Just LOVE the results. Can you see a fish shape at the top/middle of this piece? Can see there will be some interesting embroidery going on here soon.

Steamed Silk, tie-dyed, using stones and white onion skins. Like the results.

Hoped you enjoyed these results..Night allxx  

More Dyeing experiments

Results of latest experiments
First image: green/brown is from seaweed that worked. The pale yellow is from white onion skins. The red marks on the brown silk are from beetroot dye.

 These colours are from white onion skins. Pale yellow is on silk and the other two are on 100% cotton.

 This is silk dyed in onion skins and beetroot pieces.

 This is silk soaked in teabag dye and wrapped with string round stones from the beach. Love this one.

This piece of silk was bundled with beetroot pieces, soaked in its own juice, rinsed and then redyed in teabag dye...like this one.

Beetroot and onion skins dyed silk and dyed thread.

This is a 100% white embroidered, mirrored, cotton Indian bedspread which needed just TOO much work done to it. l ripped it up and use it in my "slow" work. When it takes the dye it is amazing, as with this onion skin dye; the colour seem to make the thread  really shimmer. I also like the two colour contrast between the cloth and the embroidery.

 Once again onion skins on the same bedspread but a shorter dye time.

Isn't this dyeing lark amazing? I just love it all. Thanks India for moving me further along the "Dyeing" road than l was already travelling..

More tomorrow!