Dyeing fleeces

Hi Hi everyone
Ive been very busy and keep putting off posting because I have so much to share and dont know where to start!
ok instead of panicing Im just going to do a few posts in quick succession to bring you ( and me ) upto date.
ok, so, in the background of everything else Ive been doing there has been a lot of boiling of smelling roots and powders going on!
As you know from previous posts I have several fleeces in the house at the moment and more to come form my mums place, loads of different varieties - texel, bluefaced leicester,mohair, alpaca and a few others we dont know the breed of. they are not all good wool sheep but its interesting to learn how to clean a fleece and select good bits of it etc.

Alkanet root

Madder root

Walnut leaves and fresh nuts

Logwood 

Some really interesting smells going on while boiling! yuck yuck yuck, my family not so impressed with this latest activity!

overall the shades arent as bright as I would have hoped but they are interesting , my plan is to put together small inspiration packs to sell to textile artists, bits of fleeces and yarns and silks, I put a few bits in bags to send to mum and they already look like they may be an interesting purchase for someone.

Ok so theres a bit about dyeing later I will post about some more monoprint drawing that has been going on while things boil away! xx jenny

more dyeing successesss

Ive had some really good dye results this week, I used Cow Parsley & Gourse flowers from local hedgerows, Avocado skins Ive been saving for a while and more eucalyptus leaves because I really love the greys I got last time.

 

These photos are a bit bright (taken in the amazing sunshine today!) they dont show how rich the colors are (I will take more pics as i use the samples)

I was hoping to get some dark brown and grey silks for the bird collages Ive been creating and I have,

both avocado  and eucalyptus have given really lovely dark grey browny greens! perfect of the birds!

My favorite part of all the dyeing Ive done so far is that it all ( except the madder roots) has come from my garden or the local areas hedges ! it feels very special. 

slow stitching proverbs

Ok so here is a jumbled snap shot of how Im using the proverbs from 'Enquire within upon everything' and marrying them with my naturally dyed fabric and desire to make some slow stitched patchworks!!!

these will change and grow as I stitch away, Im not even sure if they are separate things or one whole piece yet....Im sort of working on the proverb pieces as long banners and a series of small squares (4" X4") that may become a large patchwork piece?? who knows....Im happy stitching and we will see if they come together naturally or not.
Have a lovely weekend everyone
xxx

Natural Dyeing

I have been busy dyeing over the last few days!!
Ive been reading up on natural dyeing recently and instead of just chancing it I really wanted to experiment with some tried and tested ideas so I can start to find out what works for me and what things I like.
Its all in the preperation Im discovering, so with that in mind I prepared some fabric (silk, cotton, muslin & jersey) and some yarn (Icelandic wool, cotton yarn) half in Alum & half in Iron.
Then I boiled up the plants I wanted to try for an hour each, once cooled I put the plants and liquid in jars and added bits of each differently mordented fabric & yarn sample. I left the jars for just under 36 hours.

The results are just fab! some have turned out just as the book says so I must have done something right! some are fainted than I expected but I really like them like that. The Iron mordented fabrics are defiantly shades that really appeal to me, as the books say the Iron darkens and dulls the shades! I like!
I plan to continue with a few more simple plants and veg next week just to get a bit more experience and to see what my garden and woodlands can produce!

Nettles

This time I used nettles,onions, Ivy, cabbage and eucalyptus and plan to try Walnuts, avocado, Tea, brambles & Madder this week. 

After visiting Highgate cemetry a while back I said I wanted to change my palette to grey's and greens for a bit and some of the shades Ive achieved are just what I was seeing so I need to try to make some new work based around these colors now!!! to see more pics of the other dye jars and there results have a look at my flickr set

Tomorrow morning I shall draw a name out of a hat for my give away, Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments! your answers are all really interesting, Im pleased to hear most of us just cant help creating!  

xx