Indigo Dyeing

The fruits of our labor! this is my small attempt at indigo dyeing - our Dye study group met and we dyed everything we could get our hands on - one member dyed a skirt and top, another dyed an old jacket to give it new life and I took a variety of items to experiment with - wool and mohair yarn, silk caps, a portion of a silk oblong, a Chico's embroidered blouse, a very large prefelt, some cotton, a variety of silk, a nuno wrap, and some lace bits - whew! - a wide variety of blues some clamped before being dipped and rinsed in a vinegar bath.

I almost forgot to mention this piece - read about this technique on the internet and so I did the design with glue (regular old white glue) and it became the resist and left quite an interesting design.

Silk Workshop

I'm a member of the Potomac Fiber Arts Guild and last week we had a silk workshop and learned amazing details about silk and how to create silk luminaries from silk hankies; Renate Moskowitz - a very, very talented teacher and member of the group was our instructor; the next two days were spent degumming silk organza, clamping and dyeing it before using these artistic pieces to create wraps and pillows using very luxurious silk oblongs and caps.

The red piece is heavy silk satin and is an example of a travel pillow that is as soft as a cloud when touched - the blue wrap was made as a gift for a friend who was having surgery to act as a "hug" whenever she needs it. The pictures just can't begin to show just how luxurious and sot this is!

Doesn't this large round luminary look like a pumkin? Even more so when it's lit but I couldn't get a good picture of it.