Lots of Dyeing

I have been busy! Last week I spent a lot of time working on a felted present for a friend. I can't show it yet (just in case my friend reads this) so that will have to wait until I can give it to her. Then this weekend my friend Joei came to visit:) and we spent the weekend dyeing...and doing a little bit of felting. But I going to give her first chance to blog about that, so we don't post the same stuff. Her blog is Art That's Felt here on blogger.

What I can show is what I have been doing since Joei left on Sunday. We had made some discoveries that I wanted to explore further and since the dyes were still out I decided to do a bit more dyeing. I steamed them last night and opened my little packages this morning (Tuesday). After I finished with the rinsing I decided to try out the discharge paste that I bought a while ago. It was fun. I practiced on a scarf that I was not loving and really like some of the effects. But just like all new techniques I think it is going to take a bit of practice.

 Here is the scarf.

I also tried some of the discharge paste on a piece of green silk that I plan on using for leaves and backgrounds for my nuno pictures.

I spent a lot of time on Monday doing

 a painting on silk that I am planing on using as a background for felting, stitching, beading and anything else it seems to want.

I also dyed some other colored pieces to use for making nuno pictures.

Although most of these things were dyed or over dyed with synthetic dyes, the bright yellow silk is dyed with horsetails (Equisetum) which grow in the back yard. The yellow is almost neon...it is very bright with a greenish undertone.

I also over-dyed a piece of silk that I had dyed with eucalyptus when Joei was here. I took some of the eucalyptus leaves that she left with me (thank you Joei) and some onion skins and laid them on the silk.

I then wrapped it all up and put it in the steamer with all the other silk pieces that I had ready. It is my favorite natural dye piece yet...I love onion skins!

In between all this dyeing I did get some sheets washed and hung...with the silk...

and enjoyed seeing the chickens taking a dust bath in the sun, during its brief appearance.