A spot of dyeing

I confess, it's been a while since my last post. So much creating has happened, no less a little baby boy called Emrys being one of the most delightful of them. It's been a busy time with no time for blog posts, but this is something I hope to correct in 2013. Is it too early for resolutions. Christmas hasn't even passed yet.

Anyway, before the baby wakes here is a spot of dyeing that I did recently on a silk shirt that I chanced upon at the Melbourne Suitcase Rummage. I finally got those Silver Dollar Eucalyptus leaves to pay out their red orange tones and I love the result.

It's amazing what a few leaves, a handful of rusty nails, some string and a little water can do. I've run into two of my fellow Beautiful Silks India Flint workshop companions in the past month in Melbourne and on both occasions we have all by chance been wearing eco-dyed silk garments. Thank you India for your inspiration.

Eco Dyeing Normandy

On a recent trip to Normandy we did a little natural dyeing, Eco-Colour style with locally sourced fabric, water, rust and plant matter. Not having yet got my hands on India Flint's beautiful book, we just experimented with the little knowledge I have picked up from the very inspiring and rapidly growing fan base of this wonderful and exhilarating method.

Being in quite idyllic surroundings in a sleepy village surrounded by flax fields called Malleville-les-Grés in Normandy, we couldn't help but photograph our experiments. Here's the (little) method in our madness...

 A trip to the local beach to collect the sea water for mordanting the fabric...

Then a walk to our local brocante to find linen and silk for dyeing...

Very pleased with our linen haul and we even found a silk scarf, most pieces only one or two euros! We also found some beautiful rusted objects that would have been wonderful for making rust prints. We got a couple of pieces of iron to add to the dye pot.

Soaking the fabric in the sea water... 

We left these soaking overnight. We didn't have enough time to dry them before wrapping the bundles so I'm not sure how effective the sea water mordanting would have been.

The next day we collected our plant matter. 

One bundle included this old rusty chain and padlock and a few Hydrangea leaves and a bunch of Rumex tops...

With little helpers we laid out hydrangea flowers on the silk scarf. 

It might have been setting oneself up for disappointment to make this look so pretty at this stage!

Wrapping the bundles in the rain. 

...all tied up

A large bolster cushion cover made from fine linen was opened out and this became a bit of a test piece where we laid out various wind fall including cherry leaves, some kind of spurge, beech, rose, rumex, a fern etc

The silk bundle and the linen test bundle were boiled in the filtered sea water in an aluminium pot...

A beautiful copper tinderbox...

The rust bundles of linen and leaves were boiled in filtered sea water in an aluminium pot separately. That lovely copper kettle was too nice to use but it made a nice prop! 

After two hours on the stove they then went outside like this to rest overnight. The water in the pot with only plant matter turned a deep red and the iron pot went a murky black.

The next day...

I wish I kept this red dyebath. I wonder which leaves mostly contributed to make this colour?

Opening the test piece. Not many of our chosen leaves did much here or were perhaps given enough time to do much anyway. 

But the fern made a vibrant green print... but sadly that soon after faded away. 

An embroidered linen cloth that was bundled with a small rusty chain and some hydrangea leaves

This was another embroidered linen cloth that had a few sprigs of the rumex in as well as a very rusty iron chain, rings and padlock. It revealed some lovely colours and patterns...

Lastly the silk scarf and the pretty hydrangeas....

Suprisingly the hydrangea all left their mark in quite a lovely blue. The orange flowers (not sure what these are called) left a very vibrant yellow print. 

The red/orange was from the dyebath and you can see the resist of the rope ties. 

We left them drying in the apple orchard... 

Eco-printing linen with copper coins

I tried my hand at a bit of dyeing/eco-printing inspired by India Flint's bundle technique where you tightly wrap found plant matter or objects in fabric and soak/heat to transfer the colour on to the fabric (a slightly simplistic description I'm afraid!) My first attempt was using a jar of copper coins that I had to hand in an attempt to create a more regular design on some pieces of an old linen sheet that I had left over from another project. Here are the results which I pieced together to make into a top to wear because I was quite in love with the fabric.

From everything I've heard, I think I must get Second Skin.

Dyes from plants

We've just returned from a bit of a research holiday around Herefordshire and Wales so it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. I'm slowly trawling through the mountains of blog fodder I gathered on this trip which included visits to many a woollen mill, a knitting design weekend and tours of various eco communities.

To start off I just wanted to post a couple of beautiful pictures of an incredibly inspiring spectrum of naturally dyed wool skeins.

We visited the National Wool Museum in Wales where these lovely little specimens were on show. They were created by the Wallis Woollen Mill, Dyfed, Wales which closed in 2002.

The plaque reads "These colours were extracted from nine different plants with the exception of the bright reds, pinks and burgundies which were obtained from the cochineal beetle. Natural dyes were in use until the middle of the nineteenth century, when synthetic dyes based on coal tar were discovered. Synthetic dyes are cheaper to use and it is easier to repeat colours more exactly but they lack the subtle harmony and gentle ageing properties of natural dyes. Recipes used in this mill in the nineteenth century are still in existence today. "

More from this fascinating museum later...

Natural Dyeing: Organic Cotton Baby Dresses

This was one of my first experiments in the wonders of natural dyeing. Although you could say I cheated somewhat by buying the natural powdered dyes by Earthues, but for my first experiments I wanted to try to get my head around the process of mordanting (preparing the cloth/fibre to take the dye) and then playing with resist and dip dyeing to really understand the possibilities.

I love the idea of really getting experimental with this medium however. I was kindly given a book called A Dyer's Garden and have my heart set on the idea of growing and harvesting my own dyestuffs, especially the most wonderful indigo. I'm just hankering for my own garden, one that I can really invest the time and energy into.

For now however I have Alkanet growing rampantly in my backyard, it's very invasive and common around East London and it makes the most wonderful greys and aubergine colours. I'm currently drying some roots and have some others soaking for use at a later date. I'll post about these real experiments soon, but for now here are some dresses I made from organic cotton knit fabric then dyed with a range of pigments including Madder, Teal, Fustic and Logwood purple and I only used small amounts of the non toxic cellulose fibre mordant alum acetate.

 

 

These dresses are made to fit a little girl approx 12 months to about 24 months. They are designed and made by me, in a beautifully soft organic cotton with little bows on the shoulders. Each one has been individually resist dyed in a range of natural earth dyes. You can find out more or pick one up on my Etsy shop.