Blueberries!

Another batch of dyeing that is going into the dye pot. This time l am wrapping them differently. No elastic bands but paper clips and metal clips and held down with a brick. These are steam dyed with Eucalyptus leaves only.

The next image is some bundles l steamed the other day being put on a shelf, so l forget them for a while..yeh as if l do that!

This next lot of bundles are materials dyed in blueberries. I am always fascinated how differently each type of material takes the dye.When l first took them out of their dye jar (not steamed) they were a beautiful bright purple but, once dried, much, much, much paler! Although l still like what was achieved.
This piece is blueberries on silk. LOVE this one more than most..here are images of the whole piece.

This is VERY thin cotton, almost gauze. A lovely grey.

This is a piece of canvas that l had left over from a painting..dyes really well. Love this blue/grey colour.

This piece of silk took the dye well and has a lovely quality about it.

A section of that piece of grey silk. Love the creases and l don't think l will iron them out. I also like the way that some of the blue looks purple, then a light blue and then grey. Love this piece.

Really like the way this muslin has taken the dye. I folded it as if doing tie-dye patterns.

 A piece of silk has ghosting  effect on it, really like it.

Interesting patterns on this piece of thick cotton.

 Thick cotton, wrapped with elastic bands.

 A piece of canvas folded and folded..like tie-dye.

 A piece of cotton.

 And last but not least, a piece of very old lace, which was given to me by my husband's Grandmother.

Opening another lot of surprises!

Such excitment....bundle opening time!
First one opened was a silk and banana wrap. Subtle but interesting.

The next one is almond shells (which had been until recently were being used in a mulch mix for under a tree on the estate!) wrapped in cotton and then steamed. Liquid was from an Eucalypus dye steam earlier. Really like this shade of brown.

This next piece is cotton wrapped in elastic and then put the Eucalyptus dye and boiled. Love the marks and shades of brown

This piece of old white pillowcase was dyed with Eucalptus leaves and steamed with only other bundles with Eucalypus. So no cross colour changing, from the steam.

Now this images show Eucalypus leaves on silk. What a difference!

Mixture of fabrics steamed with Eucalypus leaves and all the different results. I love this Natural dying "Art". Thanks to India Flint and her book,  for introducing me to all this.

Another piece of the old pillowcase wrapped around rusty cans, wrapped up with elastic bands and steamed over Eucalytus old dye. The really dark browns and almost blacks really make this piece look sinister!

 Canvas wrapped round Eucalptus leaves and a few almond shells.

Went for a walk on Richmond Park and in The Isabella Plantation found this stump! I wish there was a way l could get permission to wrap this  tree trunk! It is a problem because it is on Crown land.

Nightx

The journey to wrapping trees.

Today, l went out with me to pick up some broken branches to wrap! Tony came with me. The image below is my poor long suffering husband....normally he is always smiling..this is a rare image! Ha x Bless him. He is always there for me on these weird and wonderful "hunts" Hax

Further along into the woods l found the "bits" l wanted and here are my finds. I am so excited about starting this "wrapping" process and seeing over the next 6 months what will happen. If you want to read all about this procedure, then just put "wrapt, tied and marked by nature" into google. The site is in Australia but it's members are all over the world. The original group are about to finish but l have decided to start anyway.
The colours are so vivid and gorgeous.

The image below is of the wrapped branches. As l live in a flat and have no garden, l am going to ask the estate's gardener to let me put these bundles by the compost heap, until l need to open them. I hope she understands and just puts me down as a mad, eccentric and weird artist! Ha!

dyeing..oranges, bananas and blueberries plus sewing.

More dyeing experiments..l am so enjoyting this!  Went to do shopping today and the supermarket had a sale of blueberries.....here they are with boiling water and what a gorgeous colour. I wonder how it will turn out?

Second experiment...large oranges wrapped in silk and banana skins also wrapped in their own silk bundle....I now have to wait ..oooooh l am not good at waiting.

My other love at the moment is embroidery...below are a few of the latest "pockets" for my wall hangings. I am also turning some of them into bags and brooches..watch this space!

This piece took the longest to complete because of all the small, yellow, single stitches between the arrows. Strangely l found it very calming and now know why so many people are coming to "slow cloth". I am hooked.

Tree bark and cranberries!

Hello folks. l have been having a housework day today..yuck! But to cheer myself up, l also did some dyeing and some unwrapping.
The image below is of a kilna jar full of boiling water and the bark from a Paperbark Maple Tree. It is a beautiful tree, very colourful and the bark feels like papyrus paper.

The next results from my Eco dyeing are from Cranberries! I put the berries in a jar and then covered them in boiling water and left them to "cook". Then a few days later l put a few pieces of cotton and let them "stew"! And here are the results after a long wait.

This is the result on silk.

Then this piece of silk was wrapped round an old iron nail.

I was really pleased with the colour from the cranberries.

Dyes and a promise!

This is one of trays of bundles l have waiting to be opened..it is hard to be so patient!

This is some of my latest opened bundles, drying on the radiator in my kitchen. The other day my husband asked,  "why the radiator in the kitchen looked so dirty lately"? I had to admit to it being my fault because of my Dyeing experiments!!!
The next pieces were for once, all steamed together! Normally l try and keep bundles unmixed, to enable me to keep good records. I decided this once l would "bung" everything in together, in a steaming pot and see what happened!

 This first piece was red cabbage wrapped in white, thick cotton and then closed with plastic bands.

 This is a piece of an old, white pillowcase, which was way past it's best. It was wrapped round sweet potatoes, then l used the usual elastic band to wrap it.

This is one of my favorite pieces out of this batch. It is the same pillowcase, with rusty tins, eucalyptus leaves and some of the leaves laid onto the rusty cans before wrapping.

Another view of this large piece of cotton.

.........................................and this is the middle of the same pillowcase cotton.

 This piece is a piece of canvas wrapped with just Eucalytus leaves.

 This is a piece of thick canvas wrapped with eucalyptus leaves and a small piece of rusty metal.

 Like this part of the thick cotton dyed with the leaves.

 These are two pieces of cotton which were boil in the liquid that the other fabrics were being steamed in.

One of the things l have learnt from this steam is this. When you muddle up different things to dye with, the colours that come out of the leaves or "stuff" leaks into the water that is steaming your fabrics...so l find you get results that are maybe not what you expected. This isn't wrong but is worth thinking about if you want what l call "pure" colours from just one type of leaf or berry. l opened these bundles too soon because l was impatient!!!Wish l had waited as l know the colours would have been a lot better. l have  made a promise to myself that from now on, l will go back to being patient again in 2011.