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.  

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.

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!!!! 

Finally finished.......

This is a piece I have finally finished and is now on the wall in my studio.  I started it after the Australian bush fires last year - just so devastating.  It is dyed with gum and made from a piece of old blanket and woollen material.

I have used some tradition qulting with batting on the LHS and used bleach to discharge the black and then the middle section is constructed using strips of woollen fabric, cut and stitched.

The RHS is a piece of blanket, gum dyed and stitched with silk thread.

Another detail. 

It feels so good to finally get something finished and it is on the wall in my studio.

Being organised........

I have started using plants to dye with again and decided that I would be really organised and make samples and document colours and plants.

 

These are samples using gum leaves.  The colour is sort of tan but the leaves that are diseased ie brown give some interesting side colours like purple - quite exciting really.

 

And today I tried some gorse and some broom.  As you can see I cut the flowers off the gorse so I didn't have to deal with the spines.  Yes I am using my best steamer pot, it's on my list to visit the op-shop before I do any more.  It's quite exciting having these little parcels to undo.

Tidying

I have decided it is time to rationalise my "stuff".  Firstly so that I can find it and secondly so that it will look good for a while anyway.  I do like tidy , I am just not very good at it.

 

I started on my baskets of fabric.

 

 

And now all my fabric is tidy and colour coded and so pretty.

   

  

And now I have these lovely piles that don't have a home yet. 

Thinking

Yesterday I went to the OP Shop looking for old and well used children's and babies' clothes and blankets.  I have been thinking about how some of our children and babies are horribly abused and sometimes die.  We have had a couple of examples reported lately in the media and as a country I think we are also still trying to come to terms with what is called "the Smacking Bill" or "the Anti-Smacking Bill".

 

I found these poignant reminders of a child, including one sock and a single bootie.  I am not sure yet how things will go but I will keep on thinking.

Hand Quilting

I have set up my kimono quilt to hand quilt - what a marathon.  It is very meditative as I sit and stitch.  

 

Esther Woolaston showed me how to set this up for hand quilting.  I went to a course she was taking.  She is a lovely woman and her quilts are just beautiful, very soft and a bit ethereal.  I found it very difficult to find a link that showed images of her work rather than just writings.  If you google her name you might come up with more.  She works with fabric from op shops etc and hand quilts all her work.  She showed us how to set up this simple frame with dowel, clamps and two lengths of about 2 cm square pieces of timber.  This is all set up between two tables or such like.

 

 

I am stitching about 6 to 8 inches across the quilt and then I will roll it on and quilt some more.  Both Zorro and Humphrey think this might be a good thing to sleep on in the sun.  Humphrey fell through it and I was lucky to catch Zorro and chase him off before the first footfall.  I have used drawing pins to hold the quilt in place so I had to replace them after Humphrey.  I don't think I am going to get this finished for the competition, never mind it will be finished soon.