More...lots more... dyeing. I may need an intervention!

This has got to be a quick but image heavy post. I have been doing so many different things with the natural dyeing that I can't remember all that I have done. Since I posted last I did a pot with iron as a mordant. Wrapping some pieces of silk with plant material around a piece of iron and cooking in an old rusty enamel pot with added iron pieces. Thankfully the photos have dates so I can try to remember what I did chronologically.
First I did make a few pieces of felt. Two blanks and one using some naturally dyed wool and silk.

I am going to stitch a stem and some other details on this one.

The next picture is of one of the blanks after it had been soaking in copper water. I love that color!

But since it was for experimenting I went ahead and bundled it with some leaves and got this.

The felt has other fibers added on one side. These did not take the dye the same as the wool, the lower left corner shows what the side with just wool looks like.

The other blank is big like a shawl. I first wrapped some fallen Rose of Sharon flowers in tight bundles in several places. I then added bunches of other stuff but I can't remember what all was in there except old day lilies and lots of greenery. I got some funky results from the wrapped balls of flowers.

The green patch is the outside of the bundle. I think this was in the pot with copper.

I re-bundled it with more of the Rose of Sharon flowers, some violet leaves, some once used eucalyptus & ?. I  cooked it with copper and a big silk bundle that had ton of the flowers.

I liked it better before but I can still do more to it so I don't mind.

I really liked the results of my iron experiments unfortunately I am really having a hard time remembering what I used to get the results I got.

This one I know I did with the horrible Purple Loosestrife. 

This beautiful but invasive plant (shown below) destroys wetlands by crowding out native plants AND by having so much tannin that it effects the water and soil and is also poisonous for amphibians.  For dye purposes that tannin can be a good thing. I love finding plants that give color that I can feel good about hacking away at!

This next iron piece it really like but have no idea what was in the bundle.

Here are several photos because there are some parts I really, really like.

More mystery iron pot pieces.

I know at least some of these were in a pot that had Eastern red cedar root that had been boiled and left to soak. I still have the dye liquor so I may do more.

Next up are the pieces that I did at Joei's house this past weekend. I was supposed to be going there to help paint her studio but the walls were not quite ready so we got to play instead.

These are the pieces that worked out pretty well.

The pink is bee balm and orange spots are eucalyptus that Joei had. These were done with alum as a mordant. The next one has onion skin and St Johns wort.

Today I opened some bundles that I did last night. The one below was done as a silk sandwich. A piece of silk, some Rose of Sharon flowers, day lilies, ferns, violet leaves, some used eucalyptus, then another piece of silk on top. I then took one of the dyed pieces and dipped it in washing soda as a post mordant. Wow! What a difference.

The top piece is before the washing soda dip. The red rectangles are from a small piece of Madder root that must have been a stowaway curled up in the Eucalyptus that I had used at Joei's.

In this next piece the pink on top is bee balm and the orange-y pink came from berries off an invasive honeysuckle. I am going to try those again.

And last but not least I opened my garbage bundles. I had been adding all my vegetable matter from these experiments to a jar with some silks in it. They cooked in the sun and cooled in the night over and over. I just kept adding to the jar each time I opened a bundle. After sitting undisturbed for days it began to grow some mold. I photographed it and got an amazing abstract that reminds me of outer space.

Here are the vegetal contents of the jar ready to go on the compost.

The disgusting, smelly, slimy, mankie (India's word which I love but don't know how to spell) bundles and loose silks. Notice the mold on the bottom one.

All this grossness gave me some nice results.

The pinker piece was a piece that had been lightly dyed with cochineal.

The one in the photo above had been dyed twice before primarily with ragweed. I wanted a totally green cloth but it just kept getting more gold. I finally wrapped it in more ragweed and stuck it in the garbage jar. It has lots of subtle color shifts that I rather like.

This last piece has been soaking in old hickory nut hulls.

Now I just need to figure out what I am going to use all of these for...especially since I know I am not over this addiction yet.

dyeing a la India Flint

I told friend Joei that I would post pictures of my results from my latest eco-dyeing experiments. I will also help me to have a record that will be harder to misplace! So here goes...

First here is the 'collection', pale but pretty.

A scarf that was soaked in copper water before dyeing.

Folded and wrapped on a copper pipe.

My leaf experiments were done on strips of silk also wrapped on copper pipes.

The purple-ish color is from dayliles. The scarf above a cooked a bit hotter than my leaf samles so the color had less of a red hue.

black raspberry leaves

I think these are some type of mulberry

Paper Birch...maybe

Rose on right, Mint from garden on left

That is rag weed on the left

Globe thistle from the garden which was on the very outside of the bundle.

Strip 2

Choke Cherry

Elderberry...I think

Staghorn Sumac

All told I think I have sampled about 35 different plants. I am going to try using a somewhat rusty pot with some other iron things thrown in next....but one of these days I need to make some felt to try to sell...maybe some scarf blanks that I can dye;)

Shakerag!

I am back from my trip to Shakerag in Sewanee TN. Wow...what a big event it all was for me, a semi-recluse. I am still processing and trying to catch up with the gardens, and laundry, and sleep!
I had a blast with Joei. And India Flint is amazing. Her work is absolutely gorgeous and the colors have to be experienced to truly appreciate their depth. The process of hunting for our dyestuffs and bundling them and cooking outdoors was just the kind of thing I love.

The campus at Shakerag (St. Andrew's Sewanee School) was a lovely setting for relaxing from daily life and was stimulating to the eye.

Our path from the studios towards food and rest.

 

Our dorm.

I love pergolas and this one had wisteria that had wonderful pods hanging down...

and a lovely fish pool.

I really enjoyed the flora and fauna, wild and domestic.

There was some nice scenery too.

I wish we had had more time to just explore, but we were busy...

gathering, stitching, laying down leaves...

wrapping and cooking bundles...

...admiring the the things we all made (the second photo is Joei's)...

And of course admiring India's work...

until it was time to leave.

I had a rough time with the felting of my piece, (the one part I was sure would be easy) so I was not happy with my project. But it was the process that was most important...and that was wonderful.

I have been looking at all the flora here in a new way since I got home and have already done some sampling with about 25 different plants...and learning what works and what doesn't.

Now off to experiment some more...