tending/mending....completed!

This is it.
Finito.
I need to stitch a couple of loops onto the back, so I'll be able to hang it for the exhibition in November's Artwalk in Wakefield.
It has plant-dyed fabric (brown=walnuts; blue=woad; green=existing commercially dyed); hand printed, and hand-stitched, elements. And a lot of running stitch, which you can see better in the earlier posts. I think I've just got 2 more 'samples' to complete now. Best get on with it! 

playing with filters!

One of the samples I'm working on. Silk dyed with walnut, and woad; cotton dyed with the woad. Printed with the collography plate I made. Photographed using my camera-fone; on ordinary setting.

 Same sample; using the 'poster' setting on my camera-fone.

Same again; using the 'solarisation' setting on my camera-fone. Not a fantastic solarisation effect. Needs more contrast for that, really. How easy it is to make these effects; I remember forty years ago, trying to get the solarisation effect, using darkroom techniques. Messing about with the stinking chemicals. Getting my hands dirty; in the dark, trying to make sure every speck of light was blocked out. Using the college darkrooms. Buying developing equipment to set up a darkroom at home; at first under the stairs (a tight squeeze!) then getting it all up into the loft (much easier!). Looking at Man Ray's photos; his solarisation effects.

'Negative' effect on my camera-fone.

The technical skills we used to practice to try and get these effects. All done now, with a click on the mobile phone. Is it too easy nowadays? We're all photographers now, aren't we?
The ubiquity of camera's in our mobile phones has created a generation who records their every move and posts it online.
I keep my old photos in boxes. 
I sometimes wonder; what would Man Ray have done with this technology.?What would Bill Brandt have done? How would Lee Miller have used a camera-fone when she was photographing events of WW2, and the liberation of the camps? Well; they would've been able to travel light/er, wouldn't they?
But what effect would this technology have had upon their art? They would have used it, definitely. Artists use whatever technology is there. And I'm using some of the oldest, most basic technology in the world; dyeing with plants, needles and threads. Ancient technology. Going back millennia. I like that.

rend again

The fabric above is not quite that livid pink! It's cotton dyed using walnuts; the blue is the 'sig vat', cotton dyed with woad.
Both have been printed using a collagraphy plate.

Close-up; and the colour is more faded in this photo; and more 'real' to the actual fabric. Am still on with seed stitching. It's what I'm working on currently, along with another 'sampler', maybe I should call them? All these pieces are quite small. Manageable to handle. Pieced together.

broken; mended

 close up

 away

further along



sky & stich

The winter sky, reflected in the lagoon near to where I live. Strange how the sky didn't seem quite that shade of blue when I took the photo? Cerulean.

Seed stitch on different fabrics; at the bottom is the walnut dyed silk; top left is onion dyed cotton; 2 re-cycled slices of red silk stitched onto a cotton/linen fabric dyed in a black bean dye-pot. The black on the right is gifted silk.

strings........

I popped some threads in the walnut dye-pot; the top one is silk, originally coloured pink. The dye hasn't penetrated all the way through to the bottom lengths of thread, so I've unravelled it some, to allow the dye to permeate further down. And popped it back into the walnut dye-pot.....though it is pretty exhausted now, and I'm dropping used tea-bags into what remains, to try and keep it going. We'll see.

And out of the mists of time....my ole guitar dragged down from the loft. Re-strung; ready to go. It's a shame I can't play it! But I have fun strumming, and filling the house with noise. My body reverberates after I've stopped strumming! The cats are fascinated. I haven't asked the neighbours!

walnut dyed

A silk shirt given to me, found in a charity shop. This is the sleeve, after festering in the almost exhausted walnut dye-pot for weeks. The photos were taken when it was still wet; it will dry lighter, obviously. But the lighter marks show up at present, where I tied string loosely around the silk. See if they are still as noticeable when the silk dries. I hope so.

walnut dyed

My washing line of dyed fabric; last week when the sun shone. Today is cloudy, rainy, and dreach, as the scots say. Nearest is a piece of silk from a child's silk bridesmaid dress, that I got in a charity shop in Eyemouth in the summer. It's dyed in the woad dye-pot I've been using recently.

Here is the same silk, this time dyed using walnut husks. It's beautifully mottled.

 Here is the same silk dyed from walnuts.

And here are the walnuts! They were really easy to peel, though I did take the precaution of wearing rubber gloves. Boiled 'em up, and dunked in the silk. I managed to pop a couple of pieces of cotton in too, but I do admit that the silk has taken the dye so much better. I then went into a frenzy of walnut dye-ing; and put another piece of silk in the pot. And some more silk into what remains of the woad. I think the dress is about used up now, so I'm going to have to be on the lookout in charity shops for more second hand silk clothes.

washing line

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!