A Little Finish

You might remember that I trialled a natural dyeing idea for Angela at Fenland Textiles.  I decided to use the dyed fabric to make a sketch book cover and fold it to create a pocket where finds and treasures could be slipped for safekeeping.  I collected a few seed heads in the garden this morning.  The cover is hand stitched in cotton perlé from www.houseofembroidery.com where you can choose from a wonderful selection of hand dyed variegated threads.

Elderberry Results

Here are the pieces I dyed with elderberries and elderberry leaves now they are dry.  I am really pleased with the results. The black spots on the bottom left cotton piece below are the result of a mould growing in my dye bath. Oops. I think they look interesting but can anyone tell me if the mould could be nasty, even though the fabric has been washed?

This last one is my favourite, the fabric is very fine recycled kimono lining silk.

Nature's Riches

I rinsed out all my elderberry dyeing this morning, leaves and berries on various fabrics. 

The leaves gave a woody green, much paler on the silk. The berries gave a rainbow from pink to purple.

These are still wet, I'll post pictures of the best results when they are dry.

Interesting

After leaving the bundles until a slight mould had begun to grow, which must surely be long enough, I've just opened these and been quite surprised. 

They are both a mixed bunch of sunflowers and agapanthus but the results are quite different. The "yellow" piece is cotton mordanted with alum, 

the pale piece is silk. I like the greens that have marked the silk fabric 

and am startled by the strength of the yellow on the cotton.  I took these pictures while the fabrics were still wet, I wonder whether they will be considerably paler when they dry.

Edited:

I'm adding pictures taken today, 14th August, of the fabrics now they are dry. Much paler colours, especially the yellow.

Two Workshops

I wrote in my last post about the needle felting workshop I had enjoyed, here is the result of my homework. 

I felted the base using wool onto hessian during the workshop, with the aim of creating a "seascape" feel to my piece, and then got carried away with embellishment once I was home. 

As you can see I have added beads and buttons and done quite a lot of stitching. I backed the work with a piece of calico to give it a little more body but mainly to give it a smooth feel as I intended the piece to be a cuff. 

Here it is on, with the large buttons making the fastening with ribbon loops on the opposite end. I'm pleased with it and it is comfortable to wear although a little but of me thinks cuffs should come in pairs!

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of joining friends old and new at Fenland Textile Studios and doing a workshop with Angela about natural dyeing. I did a little "Eco Dyeing" in Japan with Nat and have had various attempts myself, some successful, like my rose petal dye, others less successful, it was time to get things right. 

The studio was more like a witches' coven meeting than a textile workshop, in fact more than one lady expressed the desire for a cauldron!  We brewed up a variety of natural materials: barks, leaves, flowers, gathered locally, and a few obtained from commercial suppliers.

We dyed with and without mordanting our cloth and thread and our washing line became a veritable rainbow, with labels!

Of course we had time for a tasty lunch, in the sunshine. 

During the afternoon we made further spells, which Angela referred to as bundles. Dyestuffs were wrapped around a large pebble

which was then tied up securely and the whole bundle was boiled up, with the water being changed each time it became difficult to see the bundles. The buttons are purely for identification!

My bundle is now sitting in a glass jar on the kitchen windowsill while I try very hard to resist opening it up for at least a few more days. All in all a great day, loads learned, super reference collection of samples (to be made into a book? quilt/wall hanging?), lots of tips and loads of laughs. Thanks everyone. 

Finally, today's photo of the local wildlife - these baby swallows in their nest. There are five squeezed in there!