rend & mend #2

Throughout December I've been stitching this. I cut up the Rend & Mend collography print (printed on rust and woad dyed cotton), and added black reclaimed silk and plant-dyed silk pieces. Then proceeded to seed stitch over the surface. 
I've also been thinking and designing some small pieces. They're still in the early stages.
I may incorporate some beautiful wool fabric (tweed?) that came to me from my dad, via Rob. It's old; my dad was going to have it made up into a suit, many decades ago. He never did get that suit, so mum gave it to Rob when my dad died. And Rob never got that suit; so it's come to me. There's loads of it, so I've given some away; and could quite fancy a skirt, or pair of trousers made from the remainder! Meantime; I've got a lot of wool to use for my fabric work.

rend and mend

I've been playing with creating another collograph plate; this time printed onto the fabric I wrapped around the rusty pole, then over-dyed with woad. There's plenty of cotton fabric; it's an old, worn, sheet. So this is the first print; a small experimental print.
Now, I have to think what to do with it next. My feeling is to cut it into strips, and stitch other fabrics in between the strips.
Rend, and mend.
I've printed this onto some wallpaper from a sample book; that's come out interesting too. Just done that today, so I'm waiting for them to dry.
It's lovely sitting in my studio with the light going, and dusk drawing in. Sometimes Poppy, one of the cats, comes and sits outside, crying at me to let her in. And we sit there, enjoying being together, and watching the light fall.
I was out in the garden over the weekend, clearing round, sweeping up the leaves; and I'm on with the big houseclean all ready for the xmas holidays. It's going to be a strange one this year; no Lucy; no mum; no Ann. I'm trying to have no expectations, and just go with whatever happens. The weather forecast says snow is on the way. Oh well; go with the snow/flow.

dye-ing with rust & woad

This picture above was the result of wrapping fabric around a very rusted pole that's in the garden. It's not fit for anything, so I thought I'd experiment with putting a piece of old sheet around it. I also put some leaves on the inside, to see if that would make any difference. You can see the black marks on the fabric, from the rotting leaves!
I've been trying to keep the fabric damp/wet, by pouring water from the rain buttes over it, but it has had long periods of completely drying out; especially in this exceptionally dry, and sunny summer. One of the results of this wetting and drying, is that the fabric is pretty fragile in parts; there are some holes, and it's susceptible to ripping easily. I'll see how that works once I begin using it.

The fabric wrapped around the rusty pole.

And yesterday I popped the fabric into the remnants of the Woad dye-bath. It's not very active, as the weather is cooling, and I've put a few pieces in now, so the blue is coming out paler and paler. Still getting something though. I've left it dripping (and stinking!) in the garden. Then to dry it, and rinse it out, to see the result. I could simply pop it into the dye-bath again!
I got a small child's bridesmaid dress from a second-hand shop whilst in Eyemouth, back in August. It's silk; second-hand; pale peach colour. And a piece has gone into the woad dye-bath. See what happens there.
AND! -  my call-out for WALNUTS has 'borne fruit'
I've started going to an informal textile group on Mondays. Feel it's time for me to start getting out and socialising, and being out in the world more. One of the women from the group has just phoned me, and offered me a bag of walnuts! So; the alchemical kitchen will crank up soon, once more!

sample #1

For my City & Guilds course I have to make 7 samples, of A3 size, and a completed piece. This is Sample #1.
It involves pole-wrapping/tie-dyeing; transfer dyeing; stitched embellishments. And at the bottom is a piece of rust-dyed silk, stitched on.
I used the collography plate I made at home, as a surface for transfer printing. 
I also made another collography plate using lace and netting, especially for this process. I've been ironing the transfers onto fabric, ready for use. It feels that the work I'm making for this section of the C&G is showing a development of my skills.  

collograph print on rust

Printed onto a piece of linen/cotton mix fabric; the second collography print. Less defined than the plain fabric print. So it will be interesting stitching on it; finding spaces where the stitching works.
I've also printed onto a piece of felt I made on the course. No stitching done on it yet. 
And I'll be printing onto some of the fabric Lynn gave me, too. 

Berenice has kindly offered to lend me one of her sewing machines, on a long-term loan! That'll set me up for a while! Exchange is no robbery, and I've offered her the long-term loan of my big drawing, 'Chun', from a passage tomb in Cornwall, 'Chun Quoit'.
I've started planning my next term's textiles on the course. Feeling excited about that. Bring some of the skills I've learned, together in the samples we have to produce. I'm going to use the landscape of Alkborough, in North Lincolnshire, as my starting point. It's going to be a busy few months.

'rust never sleeps'

Yesterday was a day encompassing the sublime and the ridiculous. Starting with the ridiculous, when I left the keys in Blanche's ignition (with engine running) got out to open some gates, to park up, and the door shut, and locked me out.....utter panic. Luckily, brother Rob was meeting me, so we raced to my house (yes, leaving Blanche parked up, with engine running!) to get my spare van key.
Well, the complication was that my bag was in Blanche, complete with house keys.....where the van keys were. So, I prayed and prayed that my neighbour Jackie was home, who has a spare set of house keys. She was; so all ended up happy ever after.

The sublime was going down to the Hepworth for a showing of a woman's film, shown on International Women's Day.
It was a performance of Linder (currently exhibiting a selection of her collages) with her band at the Hacienda in 1982. She was dressed in a bodice with stitched on meat (Lady Gaga is apparently a fan of Linder's), and when she turned round to face the audience, had a fastened-on dildo. In 1982 it was stunning; in the 21st Century it's pretty 'everyday'. Shows the ubiquity of sexualisation these days. Hmmmm. It takes a trip down memory lane, to realise how what was once 'explicit', has gone mainstream. You see these kind of images on adverts, and fashion shoots.
Linder describes herself as a feminist. And I'm taken back to all those debates we had where we questioned if using the images of pornography within a feminist context, made them any less oppressive of women.

And above is another rust print. Rust never sleeps, sings Neil Young. Maybe not, but you can sure get some inneresting prints from it, Neil!  

Rust & Tea, Rust Dye-ing #3

Working with a group, we did some rust-dyeing. I added a used tea-bag, just in one place; the orange/rust patterns.
I like the grey/black colour, and the striations on the fabric.

Currently there is a scrap of fabric soaking in tea-bag dye. Every time I make a cuppa, I add the tea-bag to the pot! What will it come out like???? More alchemical kitchen!

Rust & Tea; Rust Dye-ing #2

Th fabric I'd wrapped round the tin can, with tea-bags underneath, has now been unravelled, and opened out flat! It's much darker than the first rust print...the effect of the tannin from the tea, I suppose.
Since it dried, the fabric is paler than the photo below. And slightly less pleated and 3D. What a difference an iron makes! 

But I'm pleased with how these first experiments in rust dyeing have turned out. As my friend asked 'what are you going to do with them?' and at this moments, I have no idea!
Maybe use larger pieces of fabric? Find a way of working on a larger scale? Mmmmm, that sounds interesting! 

Rust Dye-ing # 2

More experiments from the Alchemical Kitchen!
Experiments with rust dye-ing.
This time I'm using tea bags to see what difference that makes. 

Rust Dye-ing

Rust printing; well it's certainly a revelation! I didn't quite expect this. 
I wrapped some crochet thread around the linen which was wrapped around the tin can. The white circle is from the top of the tin can, on which I placed a ring-pull lid. I expected some colouring to develop there. But it gives an effective contrast to the patterned areas.  

A close up of the linen; hanging on the line, drying in the sun (yes! it's been sunny today!). The sunlight behind the fabric.

And wrapped around the can, the linen  looked like this. The can is nicely rusted now, so it's ready to have another piece of fabric experiemented on! 

Rust Dyed Fabric

The experiment of rust dye-ing fabric!

This is still rusting, and colouring, as I write. I expect it will take a long time to complete.

It's in the conservatory, and as we've had a lot of got sunny days recently, the fabric has often dried out by the time I've got home. I'm keeping it wet though; and I look forward to seeing the results.

I'm going to use this idea as a session in one of the groups I work with, and see how they work with it. It's a long-term dye-ing process, and not one of instant results, like with the procion dyes on my course.  

Flour Resist

A piece of cotton dyed with procion dyes, onto which I then painted a flour resist. 

I've since added magenta procion dye; and another layer of flour paste resist; and then painted the grey/black procian dye. In class, I used a batik tjanting, and added another black procion dye to the outlined shape. Got to iron off the wax now.



In the conservatory I've begun a tin-can 'rust dye' experiment. I've wrapped linen fabric around a tin can and added pennies. Soaked it through with tap water, and await the results with interest!