RE: found, stitched and dyed, a whirled-wide sewing circle for gatherers, menders, dyers and dreamers

I am happy to be the contact/collator/gatherer/meeting point, in the Central North West of Victoria, leave me a message here and we will work something out


any ideas, anything to get us started here, please let me know....................

Thought for my day.........

all the bits and pieces are drying between see through curtains, so they do not blow away, what a sad sight, but yes, I do see the stitching comming up (for the next 10 years I think), the pieces are quiet quirky............ got to be able to get some use for them.

Wish I made paper, NOOOOOOOOOO I WILL NOT START SOMETHING NEW....

Just a thought, as I realy want to paint but get sidetracked between work in textiles, magic eco-printing and having lost weight, taking all my clothes in, if possible.............

About time I get to retire and have "leisure" time to work on all that I "need"/want to do.........

Disaster struck ..........

here I go, especially left the latest batch of bundles settle for 24hrs, like a good girl.............
what did I get when I unpack: DISASTER that is..........it disintergrated in my hands!
'
You see, I read on India's blog about the magic printing in what might be lime water, and what does silly me do?

I make up saturated limewater und use this in my very special bundles:

• 3 scarves of 1.7 m x 40 cm & 1 finished fringes scarve of silk/rayon velvet plus a big piece of the above
• big piece of dupion silk
• and other bits and pieces
• some wool, the thicker one survived undamaged, the thinner one disintegrated too.......

Even made photos without the disc in the camera, caught up, so and here it's visually:

more when I feel better.................

Ok, I can see lots of stitching, stitching, stitching.......... with all this little frazzled pieces, that is if I can stabilise the fabric............

This is it: Silk/rayon velvet magic!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks India, I would never have thought this works

Take one Slowcooker, some silk/rayon velvet fabric, add (maybe artfully, if the wind allowes)

• Eucalyptus cinerea (?) leaves
• Prunus cerasifera - Cherry plum street tree, leaves and berries
• Purple sage leaves                               and a few rusty chains

fold & wrap around a brass rod tightly (I am not very good at that)

and this is the outcome:

Make sure you click on it to enlarge it for full effect

The writting on the photo is not very clear, so here are the basics:

• Eucalyptus cinerea (?) leaves = mark are rusty red
• Prunus cerasifera - Cherry plum street tree, leaves and berries = mark as various greens
• Purple sage leaves = mark a lovely supptle green with recognisable sage leave markings
• chains turn into various brownish to blackish tones

Hope this helps...........

it looks much nicer then in the photos, the colour shading is incredible....................

Workshop in Switzerland with India, 10th, 11th & 12th May 2011

fieldwork with India Flint



May 10,11,12 at Bussy sur Moudon, Switzerland

In our ‘fieldwork’ we will colour cloth using very simple ingredients; leaves, water and heat. We will work with bio-regional dye sources, windfall bundle dyeing techniques and gentle meditative stitching during this three-day workshop on a farm 30km north of Lausanne, Switzerland. Together we shall take windfall-leaf collecting walks to create beautiful dye samplers, gradually piecing them together to construct the foundation of an exquisite textile piece that can be taken on further wanderings to be completed at your leisure. Though no adjunct mordants will be used in this class, there will be opportunity to discuss the potential effects of scrap metals, different waters and other easily sourced ingredients on dye outcomes.

Workshop languages

India is fluent in English and German and has some [but not brilliant] French. We will do our best!

To reserve a place in this workshop please contact Janet Crowe at crokrum@span.ch

It may be possible to organize accommodation and meals for participants, please contact Janet if you need assistance with such things….......

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is from the flyer Janet sent me, and I can attest to her helpfullness, as I will be on holidays there from Australia I could not do everything I wanted from here...................
Hope to see lots of you

Phee........ the wind kept re-arranging my leaves.....................

Oh! forgot! the dark green I get with the bundling:
I think it is made by the Soursob (oxalis), I bunch in on top and bottom of the aluminium pot, with copper and iron pieces...
Most importantly it seems to develop, by being left to cool/settle about 12 to 24 hrs.................

Prunus cerasifera is the wild plum's or cherry plum (our street trees) proper name

Well, this weekends work, all on woven wool in the same aluminium pot:

This is it! dried and ironed, was is worth it, YES I declare!

Have you noticed the left and right mirror image as it was folded over?

Here are some details:

Wet out of the pot, first the plum's

then the Eucalyptus that growes near the shed, I have used this tree in a former blog, when the woolen jumper turned that lovely powder pink:



 

This is out of the slow cooker, bundle one is on a brass rod, the other with copper

Bundles from the aluminium pot and the mystery:

I have a mystery in this pots outcome:

The wild prunus leaves are green on one cloth and red/rust on the other, same tree, same twig, etc.............
from what I could work out, the only difference is:

• the green leave print (wild prunus) have no metal in the bundle and
• the red/rust leave print from the same had some chains and rings (presumably iron) included

 If you click on the image it enlarges and I have written on the images what is what:



Worked on this earlier this year, now I am putting it into the felting

I thought I better repost as it is from May 2010, way too much to scroll down (but has more info if you want to check it out)

From this:


to this:

I might use some tea bags to colour the whitish cotton lace, they were put in mordant of soy milk, but still did not take much colour, I'll work on it

2010, new project, new ideas, thanks to a workshop with India Flint

I arranged the Prefelt,
then the pieces of silk, wool, cotton and so on ...............
pin them
next:

you stitch and stitch and stitch .............................................

Of course, since I will felt them, I need lots and lots of pieces,

some I stitch then dye with eucalyptus and other plants

some are predyed

I then stitch them with predyed thread or ribbons

What will become of them, to be honest I am not quiet sure,

have a few ideas in my head
You will just have to wait and see

In the next few weeks I will post more samples as I stitch and dye them

Callistemon on silk

Lower fabric is the same bush as the wool one,

the top one is a different bottlebrush and the pink is much paler and a bit orangy ...

I just want to thank you all for your messages, will get back to you.......

Callistemon on wool

my favourite bottlebrush, well, you see the result:

by the way, the rose leaves come throught light green, most washed out this time but green is still there

My weekend comming up

I am going to Echuca tomorrow, for a two day watercolour (Aquarelle) workshop with the master: Joseph Zbukvic

check out his paintings on:
http://www.redhillgallery.com.au/2007/ARTISTS%20HTMS/JosephZbukvic2006.html

all's booked, just have to pack, since I did not know the workshop was on until today, friday...
well.......... I'll be in a dizzzzzzzzzz.........
I just have to make sure I have all the paint on the way home (just as well I pass an artist supply shop) after work, all else I should have available at home, hotel has been booked too

Clothes, I will not worry about them, just fill a bag
Only hope is that it will not be raining, will keep you posted ...............

this is Echuca's river the Murray
and the Emmylou Paddle steamer

Finished silk blouse

well, it's done

PS: did not end up using tea dyed pocket,

it just did not match

first time I tried this method

From Indias book, page 128 her own method:

pick up the sun dried leaves (or fresh) from the ground

boil, then simmer for 45 minutes

strain

use liquid in metal pot

keep gently under simmer for 45 minutes

let cool in liquid

eh voila:

as they say, the colour looks better in reality

The second piece is a using a second time dye from the pinkish jumper. Its the one below (Mo, Oct 13th), the lovely colour achieved just does not show

Next installment

a few pockets got sewn on ....

do you see the tea dyed one

one top right ?

Searching for a way to show the students, maybe this works:

Work in progress:

I work in class on this, trying to get students interested,

They think I am different....

They've seen nothing yet!