....on starting afresh!

I have had internet issues for a while now and life has been soooo unbelievably busy I really haven't had time to blog!

I'm back with a new blog name and another huge change to take effect within a few months...  and then I should hopefully have more time to devote to art and blogging!

Here's a little piece I am working on. Well actually it was a single piece but I cut it in half as it just wasn't right! A few hours more work on each and I think they may be ready to frame!

Hand dyed cotton, commercial printed cotton (new and upcycled) , upcycled sari silk, thai silk and hand dyed pashima.

Trussed and Tied and ready to Dye.........

Sounds a little ominous but really it's all about shibori! Here's some photos of the next stage of the upcycled silk scarf...

Upcycled Silk Scarf

Gathered and tied; ready for the dye bath

It took me a little longer to stitch and gather and tie up than I thought! Never mind, it's in the dye bath now... only an hour or so to wait until I can get it out and remove the stitching! I can't wait to see how it turns out.....

Running stitch, gathered up and tied off - front

Back view of shibori gathers

No, it's not a pumpkin......!

WIP Challenge!

Yes, it may look a little like a pumpkin at the moment; but hopefully it will look like something quite different by the time it's finished (which needs to be before the end of the month so I can enter it into a challenge!) Wish me luck - there's a lot more beads to add yet! I'll post progress photos!

My friend Lynda and I have been busy playing with dye and upcycling vintage and found fashion! We've had so much fun collecting our resources and playing with embellishing them. We've been chasing up some legalities about selling these pieces and hope to have some of the finished pieces for sale in our etsy stores and a local gallery soon....

Upcycled Fashion

I've recently entered a few local art exhibitons and have been lucky enough to gain a 2nd place in the Works on Paper section with 'Virginia Creeper' at the Bendemeer Art and Craft Show and a 1st prize at the Currabubula Red Cross Art Show with 'My Tree of Life' Textile piece. I've been over the moon about both!

'Virginia Creeper'

Pastel

Another WIP! I found this lovely long silk scarf this week and am going to try some more shibori dyeing... I've drawn 5 circles and have stitched running (gathering stitch across each one - actually I've one to go!) I want to get it into the dye pot tonight. I envisage 5 patterned circles on a black background. I can't wait to see how it ends up!

Found Silk Scarf

Stitched ready to gather for Shibori dyeing...

The circles remind me of sunflowers at the moment...

COLOUR as a form of JOY!!!!!!!!!

Oh, JOY! Look at these colours!

Fibre active dyes on vintage cotton

Low immersion dyeing

I finally stopped procrastinating and ordered some Procion MX fibre reactive dyes online. Out of the 8 colours I wanted; the first place I tried could only fill 4. Gladly they posted them the same day and they turned up here Friday! (We only get post delivered 3 times a week so this was even more of a wonderful surprise!)

Soooo, after dinner; whilst everyone else was busy I decided to have a little play! I'm so excited by the results! It's something I've wanted to do for a long time. I am amazed at the brightness of the colours and after I've been through the bright pure colour phase I'm sure I will love coming up with my own blends!

A little bit of shibori.... First on a silk scarf...

Shibori Silk Scarf

.....then on a piece of vintage cotton which I scrunched onto a plastic tube (again something I've always wanted to try!)

Shibori Cotton

I adore how the colours have blended together in places and the scale shapes from the scrunching!

I've also made some progress on my Flaming Heart piece this week; adding beads... I'm also experimenting with ways to depict clouds...

Flaming Heart - beading detail

and....... I just wanted to share this gorgeous op shop find. It is the most beautifully embroidered Chinese jacket. I originally bought it to cut up... but on closer inspection I don't think I will be able to bring myself to! The embroidery is to die for..... I'm not sure whether to get it dry cleaned or wash it myself... One pocket is badly ripped; so will need a lot of attention. Also, a number of the original toggles at the front are unravelled... so I'll have to learn how to stitch them back down. It would make an exquisite evening jacket..... the label looks as if it is about a 1950's vintage.

It is just so beautiful....

Vintage Chinese Embroidered Jacket - back view

The green and blue dyes should arrive from a little further afield on Monday! I can't wait to try them out! Happy days!

What was I thinking...?

Truly, what was I thinking? I’m part way through this Flaming Heart piece and only now do I question WHY AM I WORKING ON WHITE CLOTH?

Lynda and I got together for another art day yesterday and had a couple of dyebaths on the stove whilst we worked away at other things. I am so pleased with the outcome [ always am :) ] Here are the results of the Onion Skin bath; mostly cotton and linen… and mostly vintage or found textiles! Love that old linen teatowel and the spots and rings that became visible after dyeing!

Onion Skin Dyed Fabrics

This is the simple Dylon Jeans Blue bath results. We tied the pieces with rubberbands as we wanted variegated colour not solid colour. Great results; great future sky pieces…. So again, remind me why I’m working on white? I think I’ll have to either paint or appliqué a background onto my Flaming Heart piece!!!!

Dylon Dyebath results

We played around with the gouache and indian ink wash off technique that I’ve tried before. The results weren’t totally successful and I’m blaming it on poor quality materials! I used an inferior brand of gouache which didn’t wash off the paper as should have happened. Consequently my whites are bright white not the soft sepia they should have been. Also, I rubbed a little hard trying to remove the gouache and have torn the paper….. Mmmmm should have known better!!!

Gouache and Indian Ink wash off technique

Tree of Life

Detail

Oh, and a last minute piece of discharged linen! Yuuuummmmm, look at those gorgeous organic shapes! Can't wait to stitch back into this!!

Watch Me FLY!

Just a quick post... have been absent from blogland for a bit. Work… Visitors…. Family…. Real life

I completed the pieced top for the Hubble’s quilt. It looks amazing and is HUGE! Well, larger than anything I’ve made before... 2.5m x 2.3m! It’s off to the quilting lady tomorrow!

I’ve also been working on ‘Heart with Wings’ … It’s actual title is “WATCH ME FLY’ . This comes from my journal of 8 or so years ago when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life…. I used the journal to vent and then gradually through the course of an entry I would get more and more positive until I came out of the other end happier; if not, more understanding and accepting of the place I was and of the feelings I was having…… It served me well... This piece represents me rising above and overcoming the situation I was in.

...of Pennants, Parcels and the colour Blue!

I’ve received a fantastic parcel of fabric from Quilts for London… to be used for the Olympic Pennants. So… If you’re in Australia and are interested in making a pennant for the 2012 Olympic Games athletes email me and I’ll send you out a fat quarter to use in your pennant! You can register online at Quilts for London or contact me. While you're on the website check out the ever growing gallery of completed pennants! There are some instructions and guidelines on how to make them although as long as they are A3 size, subject matter and technique is really up to you! All that is asked is that ‘gold’, ‘silver’ & ‘bronze’ are not used or the Olympic symbol…. The aim is to present each athlete with a pennant at the end of the games.

Quilts 4 London

Fabric for Olympic Pennants

I’m still beavering away at the Hubble’s 50th Birthday Quilt! I have 75 blocks done and only 35 remaining! Go Sandi…! I was going to work a full day on it today but the garden and washing beckoned!

75 finished blocks for The Hubble's Quilt!

 

Look what I found on ebay- a little vintage weaving loom- well a set of three, really! The tied or woven squares can be crocheted or tied together… the mind boggles! And to use a Spirit Cloth term if I may (they are words that are now firmly stuck in my head… What if….? Not much time to play now, but I intend to try a few ideas after the quilt is done!

A little experiment with my new vintage weaving loom set...

Not much progress on the Hearts with Wings piece simply because I can’t decide on the orientation of the wings! Straight is a little like soaring or gliding (no effort required), down seems like some effort has been expelled in getting up there and that I'm reaching higher still. Wings up seems to me like the effort is yet to be made; that strong thrust that will push me up… I know some effort is required to fly… so I’m thinking wings down (Hubble thinks otherwise and he laughs when I ask his opinion -and then continue on doing what I'm doing anyway!)

Speaking of flying; here’s a little sketch in my sketchbook…. that I’m turning into stitch… a motley hand dyed linen background and some DMC floss. Truly I’m not a blue girl but it seems everything I’m working on at the moment involves blue!

Cross-Stitch on Hand Dyed Linen

Lastly, an image of the pattern on a set of plates I bought for my brother and SIL. Aren't the colours and design just gorgeous? We managed to find a few antique shops open on our Easter weekend travels...... They bought me a lovely set too; which I'll photograph later..........

Vintage Plate Design

of Integrity and Earthiness

On Monday I received the most beautiful pendant from Te at Soewn Earth in Tasmania, Australia! Wow, I was completely blown away with her presentation and generosity! The oval clay pendant that I ordered is divine, as was the beautiful hand dyed and embroidered pouch that it came in, complete with silk twisted cord and clay beads… and the most beautiful clay button. The texture on these are amazing. She has an etsy store here where she sells textile packs & clay bead earrings among other handmade items. I believe she will be adding the pendants to her store soon …….! Here is a link to her blog and her website. …  Her work is so integrally earthy. They are even more gorgeous in real life!

Gorgeous Earthy Parcel from Te at Seown Earth

My attempt at an early morning sunshine arsty photo on background of hand dyed and stitched silk! (the back of Where will the Journey End)

I couldn't resist ,as the silk pouch and my silk were almost the same colour. Te's pouch is beautifully handstitched.

Te's beautiful hand made pouch!

Te's beautiful oval clay pendant. Isn't that texture divine?

(photo is a little warped again- sorry!)

of a whole studio day!

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...

of Slow February Progress............

So, here I am at the end of my second working week… feeling as if I’ve achieved, well, not a whole lot! I miss stitching, I miss blogging, I miss being able to do just what I want, when I want to! I don’t know how so many of you juggle a day job with creativity! I do enjoy my job though...... just need to learn to balance it all.

I’ve speedily read the blogs I keep up with (sorry, I haven’t left comments!), and tried to do at least a little hand stitching each evening….. Once I’ve caught up with the dreaded housework this weekend I intend to work on some things here in the studio…. I can't wait!

Hand dyed muslin, silk and linen...

This little piece is from my last dye batch. I'm not planning at all, just using scraps and small pieces and stitching to keep me sane...

Hand dyed vintage lace on rust dyed silks and muslin

This piece started life as part of a challenge but I didn't end up using it. I have more stitching to add; I'll out line the Rose with split stitch and possibly the leaves too. The background is machine pieced.

Hand pieced and quilted commercial printed cotton

This little block is all hand pieced from my scrap bag. I haven't done any hand piecing since the Really Ancient Cloth in my last post! (About 100 years ago!)

Thanks Marie at Ancient Cloth for the link to my Green Eyed Dragon! and to Catherine at Emergence for her link too. They are both doing some amazing work and experimentation!

of Sunday Morning Variegations.....

I’m loving some of the soft colours in my most recent dye play. Soft colours have never really been my thing! I’ve been pretty much into strong saturated colour. I love how colours sing off of each other! ..... and here I am playing around with such subtle variations....... I guess they are singing too.

Hand dyed poly cotton?

hand sewn raw edge applique

I don’t think this piece is 100% cotton. It is finely woven, frays easily and has taken the dye softly. I love the depth created by placing the variegated fabrics together

 

 Detail

 Detail

 I have no idea what this is- maybe just a little sampler? I started doing some kantha across the square shapes but unpicked it…. Maybe I’ll add more embellishment or maybe I like it’s simplicity. I'll let it sit/hang now.....

 

Dyeing addict...!

It really is no wonder so many people are addicted to dyeing…

An old linen teacloth and a little cotton top that my daughter Rose has outgrown..

I had a bit of a play with some orange and black dyes in the studio late yesterday afternoon (after a pretty full day in the garden-phew!)  I love not knowing exactly how it's going to turn out…! At first I was a bit disappointed with the spotting that comes from experimenting and not dissolving the dye first but it’s growing on me now... there is some nice shading and variegations.

An old embroidered traycloth - I think linen..

from the top: silk, muslin, cotton(or possibly cotton polyester),

silk, commercially dyed cotton, silk

I threw in scraps and household linens.... linen, flannel, muslin, cotton and silk. I love how they take the dye on differently. I didn't do any shibori or tying of any type this time- just left the pieces scrunched in a tray...

 Flannel

I don’t think any of them will be used as whole pieces... although I do like this little piece of flannel above. 

I must do that again soon...! I had so much fun..........