Sunday 17 December 2017

I've had this hat for ages, given as a gift from a student. A lovely thought, though I never liked the stripes, I find them hard to look at. Migraine inducing.

Looking over my fabric stash my eye caught the glint of a golden sari border. Perfect. I wound it around the brim and spuraled until I reached the top of the hat.

A photo of my helper:





Saturday 16 December 2017

Needful

I get migraines, a lot. Today's self care is *not* going to a xmas get together that I really want to go to. I'm on the verge of a migraine and the very long drive in bright summer sun along widing roads there and back would wipe me out for the next couple of days.

So today I'm staying home, pottering around.


Friday 15 December 2017

Cicada Season

While collecting windfalls at the park the air was charged with the vibrating sounds of cicadas calling out to each other. This little guy landed on my sholder and seemed quite comfortable there, until deposited upon a tree.

Mordants

http://engineering-shirpur.nmims.edu/docs/10-studies-of-banana-sap-used-as-mordant-for-natural-dye.pdf

http://www.asiantextilestudies.com/morinda.html

http://prairiefibers.blogspot.com.au/2005/04/fermenting-dye-baths.html

Waste Not

I found these beautiful grapes at a local market. The taste amazing and the skin shines a lovely deep red black in the sun. They are called Midnight Beauty. Sadly they are seedless, so no growing my own.

I'm saving the skins in the hope of making a fermented dye, the flesh is too nice to waste.

Fermented dyes are a new thing for me. The idea is to extract the anthocyanins (water soluble pigments) which often dissipate with heat. Fermentation processes extract the dyestuff without degradation.

Dying on silk and wool should work best, however cellulose fibres can be used to with a soy milk protein bath.

Some dyers also ferment their wool, with the dual hope of softening it to the touch as well as creating a rich deep colour.

My method is to fill a shallow wide jar with the skins and a handful of past their prime blueberries, cover with water an allow the sugars and yeasts already on the fruit to do their work. Importantly I'm not going to seal the jar, just cover with a bit of plastic wrap pricked by a pin to release the gasses.

Grapes and berries aren't the only thing that you can use as a dyestuff with this method. Some research has gone into purple potatoes, flowers, cabbage, wood chips, coconuts/candle nuts, lichens and sap.


Thursday 14 December 2017

Slow Steep


I've had these dried apricots soaking in white rum for 2 years. Today I placed them in another jar covered with sugar to create a syrup.



The smell of the rum is divine, filling the whole kitchen. I'm sampling the results with sugar crystal lollipops.

Next I need to save up for gin and cherries.



Would you like to know how to make your own Fruit Liqueur? I started my journey here and here and here

Wednesday 13 December 2017

Playing with colour

Its school holidays, which means I get to have a break from conservative school approved teacher hair and be more me.




Someone asked me what my natural hair colour was a few months ago, without thinking I said "Blue," the corrected myself to "Green" before my brain kicked into gear and replied "Black. I mean black." I just happen to feel more myself when its blue or green I guess.


Tuesday 12 December 2017

Wool blanket, eucalyptus ecodyes, over stitched with hand dyed cotton. Mothholes patched with fine cotton to resemble tiny fallen gumnut flowers.


Monday 4 December 2017

Ecodye on opshop silk


Visiting a dye tree

The leaves and gum-nuts of this beautiful tree give a rich deep red when steamed or boiled on wool and silk. I make a pilgrimage to pick up windfalls once a month.



Wednesday 29 November 2017

A Garden Visitor

Can you see what I see on my wattle tree? This beautiful stick insect is more than 40cm long. Native to my area. Herbivorous, they rely on looking like twigs, when they move they even sway as if blown by the wind.


Thursday 23 November 2017

Rust, Rust and Rust


This was once a baby blue wool blanket. The leaves were soaked overnight in rust water before the fabric was bundled and simmered overnight in a slow cooker.

How to make rust water? There are two ways.

1. Iron Oxide: Ferric (FE2) is known for its rusty deposits on other materials.

Find discarded bits of metal that have gone rusty. For example squashed bottle caps, old bike chains, tin cans and the like. put them in a bucket of water and soak until the water turns a rusty brown. Vinegar helps to speed up the process.




2. Ferous Sulphate: (FE3) is a clear water soluble iron
You can buy Ferris Sulphate from your local hardware or garden shop. Measure out a few teaspoons into a bucket of hot water and let sit overnight. This is also the same compound that humans take as a iron supplement.


The type of Rust Water that you use changes the chemistry of your dye pigments, altering the colour, fastness and fabric stability over time. High concentrations of iron eat away at fabric.





Monday 30 October 2017

A visit to Gair Park

Windfalls collected



Bundling and Layering watercolour paper and cloth


Into the dye pot which had been simmering with leaves, bark and resin collected from the parks gutters



Out of the dye pot to dry. 
The colours change over time as the dyestuff oxidises




The final results on paper

Thursday 21 September 2017

Rust and Leaves

I think that this is my favourite ecodye so far. Wool dyed with eucalyptus windfalls via steaming. The red dye from the leaves is substantive, a chemical reaction between the protein of the wool fibres and the chemicals in the leaves. The rust creates a black permanent stain in a similar reaction.


Wednesday 20 September 2017

Scraps from an old bunch of flowers left at a bus stop.


I've been experimenting with a scrap of silk and a few leaves that came to me via extra decoration in a bunch of flowers. The leaves where slightly purple and I suspected some sort of commercial dye given their sheen.

After 2 Hours of steaming this was the result, the natural pigments intermingling with whatever they were soaked in to create their lustre.

One of the things I love about the ecodye technique is that every piece is unique, each one an unsuspected gift of colour.

Sunday 10 September 2017

After the fire

A patch of bush land that was recently burnt off in preparation for summer. Ash will soon turn to green sprouts and new leaves. The girls are collecting charcoal for making potions and paint in the back yard with mortar and pestle and buckets of rain water.




Wednesday 10 May 2017

Small treasures

These tiny beautiful lichen are grey and faded until the rain, then they start to shine beautiful greens against the stones and leaves.


Thursday 20 April 2017

Comfort day

Post knee injury, before surgery, in need of comfort, I found shelter at one of my favourite
cafes.




I've had this hat for ages, given as a gift from a student. A lovely thought, though I never liked the stripes, I find them hard to look...