I found this small embroidery on linen at an op shop some time ago and just had to save it!
Today I threw it in the dye bath and after it was washed and dried I discharge dyed the original stitching... I love the effect!
Yay! My work hours are going to be consolidated a bit and it seems I am going to have at least a couple of days a week with no work… which means of course I can get more done at home and in the studio! Also, the total hours will be approximately the same as I have been doing but I won’t need to spend as much on petrol to get there (an 80km – 50 mile round trip) which is a bonus! Instead of 5 days part time it is going to be more like 2-3 full days.
It will definitely make me appreciate the time I do have here. So, it was down to busy-ness in here this morning and I dyed a batch of fabric with a particularly prevalent weed we have here. Again, the silk took the colour the best and adding salt at the end changed the end product from a fairly non-descript green to a mushroom pink on most fabrics. An interesting result on the linen….
I love the softness of natural dyes… I also found a piece of printed cotton that I had left in the bottom of my last onion skin dye bath. Beautiful colour! Nice effect! All rinsed and dried now.
Natural 'weed' dyeing!
The darker pieces are silks and the others, cottons and cotton blends.
I had the dyeing bug after that and I can always find plenty of scraps to throw in around here! So, I used a commercial jeans blue dye and did some low immersion dyeing. I love the effects that I have. Again a mix of cotton, linen, silk, & cotton blends. This was my favourite piece of the day! A gorgeous piece of linen which was scrunched and retained some whites!
Low immmersion -commercial denim blue dye on linen
Various pieces of cotton, linen and blends with denim blue commercial dye- low immersion
Fire Breathing Green Eyed Dragon!
WIP - Nearing completion!
Last night saw me stitching more on my Fire Breathing Green Eyed Dragon! He is nearing completion and I was just starting to think about a backing fabric and work out how or if I’m going to bind it; when inspiration hit from a piece of blue linen I’d just dyed!
I have an old thrift store pashima shawl I dyed a few months ago that has some nice tassels so I think I’ll use that on the bottom edge…. mmmm... might need something blue along that bottom edge too...
4 comments:
How about that! You see, how it ll works out in the end! That's brilliant! Far better management of your time. I can tell how happy you are.
The dying is amazing! Love those mushroom pinks. I am sitting here with 3 DCM silks on my desk, all soft pinks and thinking about *strawberries and cream*, your cloth would be perfect!!! The blues are lovely too.
And WOW! Look at that dragon cloth. I ADORE this piece. Yes something on the bottom. Indigo?... or Black? It looks fabulous!
Have a productive day!
I took a closer look at the first picture and it is lovely! All the dyed fabrics are quite beautiful and
will be so much fun to incorporate into new projects!
I know you are happy about the work consolidation. It will make it so much easier. I can not wait to see the shawl you want to incorporate in the dragon cloth : )
Your dyeing is fantastic - beautiful, subtle cololurs with the natural dyes and that denim blue colour gives a lovely indigo blue effect. Lots of inspiration there.
Great about your new work hours - I can relate to how you feel. I work three days a week (10 hour days) as my round trip is 150kms). Leaves me Monday and Friday free.
The fire breathing green dragon is wonderful.
Jacky.
you create the most beautiful things!
I'll put a link in my blog!
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