Still lots of embellishing to do.......... but enjoying and using as it is already

The middle bit's are from a workshop in Bussy sur Moudon with India Flint earlier this year, around it the frame & the outside, all eco dyed and printed from plants/trees on my Bendigo property............sewn onto an old blanket

I still have lots of embellishing to do, on the individual pieces, that's where the bowl of wool came in, I needed the colours to do the stitching

A bit like my life I suppose, looking at it now, seems your formative years will colour the rest of your life, no matter where you end up!

An interesting tapestry of life, still ongoing of course, I can add for years to come...........

Love the marks on the back, a painting on it's own

My bits and pieces from Bussy sur Moudon

Finally, something to show from Bussy sur Moudon with India Flint earlier this year.

Its been a cold wet and especially dark winter, did not get done much at all............

The pieces in the middle are all from the Swiss workshop, they are embroidered or stitched onto the blanket, then is the Australian "frame" and beyond that will be Australian pieces; that is from my land
well it's sort of what I am all about I suppose.

Will be a wall hanging for my room when finished, unless it wants to be something else that is..... ;-}

Some details:

Same treatment as below, with Italian silk

This is some silk I picked up on the market in Italy

I think the one on the left must have some wool in it, as it took the colours (the yellow flowers from oxalis) much stronger

Again the squares are from the sides of food tins, they bring out the orange-yellow, wonderfull colours......... the green is from carrot tops and oxalis

What you can do with oxalis

It's a weed, it's a mordant but it also produces this:

What a dark strong yellow, mind you it is still wet.

It is oxalis on wool, my alltime favourite plant because it delivers me the best ever greens, I simply love it.

Did not work last week, needed to wait until the yellow flowers came out, now I am getting results.

I had it layered with aluminium foil as the next photo will explain

Remember, we have spring here..........

 

This are prints from eucalyptus leaves which on their own do not realy produce prints, but as chance favoured me, I found it needs the tops from food tins and then I get very unusual shades from browns to maroons to mauves, hence the added aluminium foil and the strong yellow from oxalis flowers...

Isn't nature imaginative?????????????????

What a pleasure unwrapping is...........

Marvellous time in Bussy sur Moudon with India Flint

I could sit here forever.................... this was the view from my room

Janet was a very busy lady
All worked out
even the weather co-operated with this lot of United Nations (Politicians should learn from us)

• The landscape
• The company
• Nature's supply
• Even the pots
• Everyone ate too much as it was very good -- lecker (as some would say :} )
• and of course India's magic approach

all in all:        
everybody had a good time and we all learned lots and feel refreshed and eager to bundle and stitch some more

Thank you India for your intrepid teaching and approach to life

and thank you to
Janet for the organising and Anne Marie for endlessy cooking that lecker food
(hopefully this is the first of many succesful endevours)

Bundling to unwrapping, the India Flint style
we all had a fantastic time

Some wool & silk, a few gathered plants and some tins (recycled food tins that is!)

Ein wenig Wollstoff & Seide, zusammengelesene Blaetter und ein bischen Buechse (grosse Lebensmittel/Fruechte Buechsen)........
Uebrigens, das gruene ist von den Karrotten (Ruebli) Tops und die Markierung ist von Gummibaendli's)

Sehr angenehm wuschlig und warm zum tragen



It wears lovely, soft and warm......................

OHHHHHHHH! I forgot, the green is from carot tops! the markings from rubber bands..........

Young tree/bush producing marvelous prints

Thanks to India I now know its identity (see comments)

this are the prints from it on wool, have a much better one on the silk, but this silk piece is elusive at the moment, the leaves are greener on silk

a few slices of lemon, some silk, a bit of time, eh voila!

Lay down some silk, arrange slices of lemon artistically (or maybe not), add some more silk, maybe silk chiffon, noil, etc add wool, wool jersey.........

Bundle it or fold it as in my case........

Leave it in liquid in a sealed container for 4 weeks or more............
by the way, to achieve the grey/black I added an old iron pick to keep the bundles weight down........

and this is the result!


now I have to try orange and grapefruit too
a real fruit cocktail, yummi!


PS: the fabrics have all been washed in the washing machine

on Noil silk .....................................

details on silk

Cold bundling is SUB ZERO, WOW

Was it worth the wait?
                         You tell ME..................

Cold bundles left in a container full of left over cold dye liquid for 28 days, and this is the result:
(mind you it stunk, but that is a small price to pay), they were washed in the washing machine:

that was the dried red roses

detail from Grevilla robusta,

see the leave on top and below the brush flowers

something as simple as slices of lemon

produces a result like this

It's just not fair !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way back :  Tuesday 9th November 2010 (& earlier), I did a lot of dyeing with the Street plum of mine, with good results,
then on Monday, 17 January 2011 India (http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com/) under the title:  lovely to be home for [most of] the summer  had this magic colour with what I assumed to be something like my tree.............................
I am still on holidays (just about running out of time) so I dilligently went to collect the leaves as the master wrote and followed the instructions.......................
I am crying stamping, my foot, not fair, not nice, MY RESULT:

Still lovely colours, BUT.........

not mumbling the right chants, heeeee ??????????????????????/

That RED CABBAGE, and what it can do to fabric.......... & this is the LAST of it too

well, I have been busy, so before the red cabbage gets even more expensive (no complaints from me) because of the floods everywhere that grows things, I had to do the vinegar & Bi carb Soda comparison,
and here it is:
same cabbage, mostly same fabric and different results, after washing of course:

and the Bi carb mix got to stink too (left both 2 days in their broth, hopping for a stronger colour, which I don't think happened.............
there you go, now I KNOW
Colours are lovely and subtle, the vinegar chiffon is beautiful, and the Japanese kimono wool in the Bi card is a colour I like too and the Nun's cloth wool as well...........

By the way I am still waiting on the COLD BUNDLE, promised myself to wait until end of the week, then's the big UNWRAPPING (better and more satisfying than xmas anyway)

Cold bundle, at 17 days and waiting...............

I am trying the cold bundling (from India Flint), they have been in the box for 17 day, hoping to leave it until end of month.
Its very hard not to peek, and I can't remember much I put in, so will be double surprise or not.

I put gladwrap on top of the solution and filled this with water to avoid oxygen getting to the mix, as not to have any growth that could spoil the broth..................

It's outside, so gets a bit of the morning sun, when it shines that is

waiting............. waiting.................

Red cabbage with Bi carb Soda

there is a colour variation, its greener, while the cabbage alone was pale bluish,
bamboo did not take at all.........
next try will be with vinegar wash instead of bicarb (which is sodium bicarbonate)

Check out my new BLOG, it's nuno felting

This takes you there:                 artistically felted

 just to give you an idea ..............


Ladies of Catherine O'Leary's workshop, look for the top bar and click on:
Our workshop in Mittagong, January 2011

off to learn a lot, hopefully

I am off to a workshop with Catherine O’Leary.
Nuno felting is really a direction I would like to go and she is the master at it, I have not been able to see anybody else's nuno felting I like as much as hers:

http://www.catherineoleary.com.au/

check out her Gallery, unreal the garments quality and style.

Those of you who know me, will know that I will work out my own way to apply this craft and combine it with what I already do, looking forward the outcome......................

Now the onion skins - Zibele (Zwiebeln) Schalen

because I omitted the first step and dyed the whole lot together in one go, I get the uneven dyes, which I like
Ich habe alles zusammen gefaerbt aufs gleiche mal in einem Schritt, desswegen die mercerierten Farben...

carrot tops and red cabbage, what a delightful result

Uebersetzung ist Oberhalb (Lebensmittel faerben)) zum Anklicken bitte 

1.) 5 bunches of carrot tops and
2.) 1/2 a red cabbage,
                                              dyed in the aluminium slow cooker, with copper and brass metals


For Instructions click on the Top Bar..........

no more lilac, but dark rose hues on today's silk/rayon velvet

it just does not show the magic hues on the photos,

sorry India, got my incantations wrong today, just learning after all..................    :-)

Tried all the plants used before in a row, not today it said, we will try again though, mind you I threw a few tea bags in, might have covered/altered the colour (sure did, silly me)

I will always try something else, serves me right, but what fun to be had, to wake up to unbundling...........

silk/rayon velvet turned lilac, wow

look at this, can't believe the colour:

since the wool and silk have not taken this colour, it has to be the rayon that turned lilac with the eucalyptus leaves and pods

I just can't get over it, not my favourite colour, but a delight no less............
Well, you guessed it, there will be a copied bundle on the boild pretty soon, to see if I can repeat this colour.

I know India writes and tells of this, but I just can not get over the fact, that the same plant (Eucalyptus we are talking about, don't know so much with the other plants) can give you from nothing to magic, and the colour changes with seasons, combinations and so on.
For somebody like me, who would prefer some prediction, its FRUSTRATING.... but also humbling, to not be in charge for once................

Better get back to work then.....................

nuno felted eco-dyed embellishments, my first try

those bubbles were caused by the blusty windy weather ......... well, it stoped raining for a minute!

had trouble with the felting of the embellished pieces, had to add another layer of prefelt, then it worked fine.
I think the reason would be because the pieces were boiled in the eco dye pot, that would have changed the structure of the prefelt, so it couldn't traverse into the silk, maybe it was just too "heavy" with all the embellishments?????????????

In details:
                                        

fascinating how the stitches form the pattern in the felting...........

       

love this last piece, is very subtle, was a prefelt with a lovely leave pattern from a bundle, covered it with a silk gauze and did the embroidery.........

For this weekend, ready to felt

a layer of recycled silk, prefelt wool, silk chiffon, loosly stitched together with some wool, topped with the stitched on prefelt and eco dyed pieces
be interesting to see how this works, I am thinking of wall hanging, demonstration piece, but who know what it will end up being
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Pieces are from blog, 10th May 2010 and before

a new design needs a new picture

my ever giving me joy E macrocarpa with new growth and flower