liquorice

Organisation and samples

Yesterday I dried and looked more carefully at my rose hip samples.

And I decided they were OK really.  Initially I was really disappointed but then I have a beautiful khaki green colour and sort of pink.  I tried cotton without any soy as a pre-mordant and it didn't work ( I knew that but I was being scientific).  I won't do that again.  I used garden labels to write on so that they wouldn't dissolve.  I did forget the wool but tried some sliver - without labels!!!!!

Today I am going to do some samples with some brown onion skins I have collected while cooking. 
 

And I have some red onion skins collected by a friend (RHS) to save for later.  I am saving my foraging "stuff" in old pillow slips so they stay dry and I can hang them in the wardrobe on skirt hangers.

We are going to a birthday party tomorrow for a 5 year old and I am planning a foraging bag for him.  Melissa makes the most wonderful foraging bags for children.  Thank you Melissa.

 
More rust on the spring.  This is silk (paj) and it is soaking in seawater as I type.

 
  And I have been foraging for kowhai seeds in my garden. NOTE the BLUE SKY!!!!!

 

Rust dyeing and getting organised

Yesterday I spent time looking for more information about natural dyeing and found this cool site called pairiefibres.  She has several blogs as well with links from her website.  Then I found some old pieces of rust dying that I had done a long time ago actually using pieces of rusted metal.

I had a piece of fabric already wrapped around a beautiful rusty old spring that I had been religiously spraying with water to encourage rust with little luck.  Now I have it wrapped around the spring after being rinsed in vinegar, re-wrapped, left overnight and now in the sun and it is looking so good.  I am going to rinse it in salt water next to stop the rusting

I have also been making a plan to record my dying so that it is not so random.  I will still do random I am sure, I won't be able to avoid it .

I have been making notes, assembling materials and reading books.  And I have a records chart taken from India Flints' one - thank you.  I am thinking I am going to try to make regular postings: Monday. Wednesday and Friday for now and see if I can do it.  OK so far, this week.  

Monday 02.11.09

More dying and Fiberarts

I over-dyed my stripey pink piece of blanket the other day.

 
The finished piece and a detail.  It looks a bit like the hide of one of those african wild dogs.

I used corokia(?) growing outside and wrapped stalks of it in the piece of blanket and added chopped branches to the pot and then boiled it for a few hours.

When I have used this before it has given a soft sort of pink, a bit like the underside of supermarket mushrooms.  So the stripes have almost disappeared and the rusty nails have spread out as black/grey.

My Nov/Dec issue of Fiberarts arrived today.  Wonderful for cup of tea time this morning.  There is a review of Clare Plug's exhibition based on her time in Antarctica.  It is an installation called Look South on in Hawkes Bay.  It is travelling or touring in 2010 so look out for it, it looks really interesting.
 
  

Some Dyeing

I put some bits of blanket in an aluminum pan and layered them with rusty nails (black) and foliage (mostly hebes-purple? and gum leaves-green), added sea water and waited.  I did get impatient and cooked it for a wee while in the oven at a low temperature, several times.

Pan, blanket bits, and bricks.

The bricks keep it all pushed down and then I covered it with plastic and into the oven.

The results are very strong, lovely colours.

 

A detail.

 
And a pink stripey edge which I wasn't so keen about and so I over-dyed it and am about to unwrap it - so exciting!!!  On mature reflection it is not so bad.  Never mind I have another bit I can try something else with.

Thinking and stuff

Since I have been doing the Business Art Course at PetoneI have been doing lots of thinking about what I am doing and how to motivate myself.  One of the thoughts I have thought is about how important it is for me to link activities and develop rituals.

This is my first ritual - a cup of tea - on a beautiful tray with a beautiful teapot and cup at 10 am - when I start working.  The teapot was given to me by a dear friend in Nelson and the cup (part of a set) was given as a leaving gift when I stopped working for IDEA.  And then I found a beautiful old embroidered teacosy, whose origins I am not too sure about.

It is so lovely to have beautiful things and memories to inspire me. 

While being inspired and thinking I always wonder about the rigidity that appears around quilt makers and what is a quilt and what defines a quilt and what do I call myself if I make coverings that don't have three layers etc, etc.  Diana Parkes has an exhibition on at Expressions Gallery in Upper Hutt,she does interesting work with dyeing and textiles.  The opening is tonight and so I am going to go and visit soon.  The Upper Hutt Embroiderers' have an exhibition there as well at the same time.

I am really sad to see that the NZ National Quilting Association is having difficulties surviving - just more thinking.

 

Monday 19.10.09

 

Rust Dying

Yesterday I did some rust dying.  I learned this process from Glenys Mann, an awesome Australian fibre artist who does classes in New Zealand and teaches at forums in Australia.  I recommend her.

This is it drying on the line this morning - an old petticoat, some silk voile and some cut up blanket pieces.

 
I just had to include this with the voile caught by the wind - so beautiful and just frozen in time.

And this is the process - a series of trays with tea bags, caustic and iron (ferrous sulphate).  It works for paper and silk and wool fabric.  Such an awesome day!!!! 

Seascape

My journey to Nelson and back was a bit fraught - on the trip over we had to go up through Queen Charlotte Sound because of the tsunami warning after the Tongan earthquake.  This added about half an hour to the trip.  However, it was absolutely flat calm and fun to see a different part of the sounds. 

Leaving from Picton was quite different, grey clouds and snow on the hills around Picton, plus very cold outside the car.

The colours and the movement of the weather and the water was awesome.  We were sitting in the bow (front) of the boat and had a wonderful view.  At times the water came right up and over the windows right in front of us.

   

Monday

Monday 13.10.09 8 am