This week...indigo and Eco dyeing.

This has been a busy week. Saturday my daughter and I did some indigo dyeing. First time for me. Second for her. For once she beat me to learning something! We both have used different types of shibori with regular MX dyes but hadn't used Indigo. It was a prereduced kit from G and S dye in Toronto.

Here are a couple of snaps to show our results

Here I was Eco dyeing on Tuesday. Doing a workshop for my husbands family Girls day out (by request). Need to know what to do with what I have. Loved the results on silk and on cotton as the iron blanket.

And here I have one of my dyed scarfs with my jewelry in the same tones. A complete package. Hope to get these into a co op soon.

Have a great week. Much going on in the studio aka house right now.

Hope to link to the Needle and Thread Networks. 

Have a great Thanksgiving! 

Jo

Weekly Post...a little late this week.

Last week was a whirl of excitement with grand baby # 1 being born.
What's a grandma to do but take every opportunity to help out. So we spent time holding and cuddling, baking and cooking and spending time as a family!

This week I have still managed to sneak in some cuddle time but also brought out the MX dye on
Monday.

My friend Karen was up for an impromptu dye day with me. 

Here are some fabrics placed in a baggie to create some leaf fabrics. 

Karen made up a bunch of baggies of her own mixtures of dye combo's . 

Then we tried some ice dyeing.   Hot summer day resulted in the ice melting quickly. 

We remembered to take a picture of what dyes we put on our ice. 

I wanted to make some ice dyed scarves. I used Sea Glass MX from Dharma Trading. 

And I used Pewter from Dharma on some others.

All in all I have a number of pieces made. Next I have to add the after pictures. 

I really need to write down what I try to see what works and doesn't . 

Today I am going with leaves that are in my garden and echo printing on Silk Habotai , Rayon and Cotton Jersey scarves.  

Part 2 of this weeks post will be after the bundles are unwrapped and dry. 

Other sewing this week included altering hems on a friends daughters wedding dress and some hand quilting on # 1 baby's crib quilt. 

We are taking a few days holidays so my sewing machine will come with me so my daughter and I can work on some projects amongst the trees (on the covered porch) at the lake. 

Slowly but surely I am getting some of my goals reached for the year. When I am at the lake I tend to get reflective about life at home. 

How about you? Do you get reflective when you get away for a few days of down time? 

Have you any projects like dyeing you tend to do in the summer when your studio becomes your back yard? 

I am too late for the Needle and Thread Network this week but I am managing to keep up my posts to once a week. Soon I hope to be more intentional and post twice a week. 

Have a great week! 

Jo 

Eco Printing/Dyeing....

A couple of weeks ago some good friends and I visited a local Crafters Spring Market. It was a fun day out! And of course seeing many of the items for sale in my head and out loud I say I can do that or I have read about that....

Information. I am an information junkie! This is a good thing and a bad thing. Good thing because I am not afraid to try new things. Bad thing because I find it hard to focus on what things to do. I am like a squirrel running around trying to do it all!

So after our day out I offered to eco dye some scarves with my friends.

I hadn't done it before but of course had read about it. Followed the andthenwesetitonfire blog posts on the subject, googled you tube clips and checked out India Flint' s website who wrote a wonderful book on the subject.

I already had some blank silk scarves and had been collecting rusty metal and had an old canning pot that had seen better days.

I went to the local re use it store and supplemented my rusting metal collection and bought some old pails.

I was ready!

I invited the girls over after I had got the equipment ready and tables covered.

We watched a few you tube video's and I answered a few questions.

Now remember that we are total newbies to this process and they have never done any kind of dyeing before.

Here my friend Alice is setting up a piece of treated cotton with her chosen plants. She is a very knowledgeable plant person and came with many different forged plants. 

This is my friend Caroline. She also is a very knowledgeable plant person and worked as a florist. The flowers she choose came from some beautiful left overs from her son and daughter in law's wedding. These are treated silk scarf blanks. 

Here are the four of us. Alice, me (Jo), Caroline, SueAnn poising for prosperity sake! 

My re purposed canner is filled with rusty water silk scarf bundles on copper pipe and branches. The cotton bundles went in too! My kids did not think that this looked at all appetizing but it did smell quite nice with a vinegar and eucalyptus smell!

Next day was the reveal after everything had cooked and cooled. Notice my old wash tub comes in handy and my dog lurking behind in the next picture. 

We hosed the fabric off with my garden hose to remove the remaining leaves and debris. 

Again Moe the wonder dog had to be underfoot the whole way!

Cotton piece

Scarves! 

All in all it was a great project. For the ones of us that went with just wing it  mode it was a great surprised  to how the scarves turned out. For us who wanted a controlled outcome were surprised and trying to analyze what and why happened. 

Lessons Learned

Learn more about the process... so I can understand what causality. 

Buy more scarves and fabric... so I can experiment more. 

Do some controlled experiments... so I can be more intentional about placement and effects. 

Record results ....so I can remember what I did in the experiments. 

Buy India Flints Book Eco Colour: Botanical Dyes For Beautiful Textiles .... so I can do all of the above! 

I did order India's book while at my sisters in the US last week and spent a good time reading it. Now I need to go back and make some notes as to what experiements to do from the plants in my own back yard. Today I also plan to order some more silk and cotton to play with. So you may be seeing some more experimentation in the next few weeks! 

I am linking up with 

needleandthreadnetwork

Mid Week Makers

Have a wonderful week.

Jo