Eco Dying/Printing

 My next obsession is eco dyeing/printing -- this is only a small area of a three-yard piece of silk chiffon  dyed using onion skins, rusty bits, rose petals and simmered in a euco bath.  A wonderful member of the eco dye list on FB sent me a variety of euco leaves from California - the type that leave orange prints - I'm itching to try this but alas work comes first (at least my paycheck does!) to make all this playing possible!  The lovely lines are from the string used to bundle the piece.  After simmering, I left it outside in the elements for about two weeks and it was a joy to behold when opening it.  I get the biggest kick out of treating silk in this fashion, as we used to think it was such a delicate fabric to be handled with such care!

Felt of Many Textures

 I seem to have found my felting niche -- getting lost in creating a large felt with lots of texture and incorporating various techniques.  There is something satisfying in working with these textures before cutting it up and putting it together again!  This may turn out to be a jacket but it the ideas are still in process; at the moment, I'm just enjoying gazing and touching :0)  Oh, I should mention that the inspiration piece of fabric was a very lightweight blue/brown and cream piece of viscose that felted beautifully!

Hunger or a Burst . . .



New/improved colorway

 My Mom often uses this terminology and how true it is in life with many things; regarding creativity for example, one day not being inspired at all to the next filled with so many ideas floating around that it is just about impossible to catch them all and so it goes with my Blog - sometimes nothing for weeks and then all of a sudden a rush of posts. It just seems that we are meant to "go with the flow." I'd rather spend the time creating something than spend it on the computer but then I realize that time has gotten away from me and that if I've made the decision to have a Blog, I'd better get to it! and it is true that we all have the same 24 hours in a day and it is up to us how we use it - isn't it a luxury to have such wonderful options? Anyway, this is what I've been up to for the past few weeks.

I came close to ruining the yellow coat/dress made in Charity's workshop this summer.  I decided that if it the colorway was more muted then I could wear it with a turleneck and boots so never one to leave well enough alone, I took the plunge and dyed it in my huge copper pot using euco and rusty bits - what a learning experience that was and one I've learned a lot from and one I'll never forget!!!  While the copper pot is great for most things, the coat turned an awful, awful draaaaaaaby hideous green, so then I did some research to find out how to remove some color; well it turns out that it isn't that easy because the copper/iron molecules do something to the wool so that wouldn't work.  The only option? (couldn't stand that shade green and I do normally adore green)  I dyed it again, this time in a heavy enamel coated cast iron pot using charcoal grey acid dye and now I'm quite "chuffed" as they say!  It is probably more bronze than the picture shows but I'm so please with the "shades of grey" of the various laces that were incorporated into it.  (Great BIG sigh of relief!)  I could have made three coats by now!


Original Coat/Dress