May Moon

Just begun stitching 'May Moon'. It 'may' take some time.

woad seeds

A friend kindly gave me these woad seeds for xmas. They're very light; like feathers. Planted up; hopefully I'll get some plants come through, and get enough to be able to dye from. Plans for my 'dye-ing garden' are developing! Cross my fingers.

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.

rend & mend #4

Completed.

rend & mend #3

This is just about completed now. The close-ups show the stitching nicely I think.

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.

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

more woad

Here's the silk from the child's bridesmaid dress, dunked into the woad dye-bath. Bought the dress in Eyemouth back in August. The silk is a 'slub' silk; which means it's uneven on the surface; the spin of the silk is uneven, creating thick and thin lengths of thread. Tiny imperfect weaves. Gives the fabric a lovely texture. I'm expecting the woad to exaggerate this texture, when I take it out, wash, and dry it.
The results I'm getting with the woad, are a very uneven colouration. Maybe that's because I'm using such a small dye-bath? I do like that effect actually, so it doesn't bother me.

This is a cotton top Jill gave me; me wearing it. The details of the string I tied around the cotton reveal a lovely pattern; hardly touched by the blue woad dye, it's remained white. As I took this photo myself, it was hit & miss getting an image that was anything like!

woad - dyeing for a result

I've had this fabric in a small dye-pot of woad. I folded it, and clipped the folded cloth, but there are only the most subtle of lines to see. It's still a mottled, patterned effect, which is nice.
My brother bought me some woad powder a couple of xmases ago, but I've only got round to using it this summer. I used the good ole interweb to seek out recipes, and discovered that urine was traditionally used with woad. So; I collected the urine; I 'took the piss', and mixed up the powder.
This was my second use of this dye-pot; my first go was to dye a white cotton top that a friend had given me. I tie-dyed it, to lovely effect. Will get that posted another time. I've worn it, washed it, and worn it again. I hand wash it, in ecover washing liquid, to avoid any bleaching effect from biological washes. It's fine so far.
This fabric will get used on some piece or other; no idea yet! I'm planning to pop another cloth into what's left in the dye-pot, to get what I can out of it, before I have to dump the remains in the compost.
Blimey though; you DO need a lid when using urine for the mordant! It absolutely REEKS!!!!!  
And the call has gone out for walnuts!
Having read and seen the results of walnut dye, as it is the season for them, I've got people out asking around for walnut tree owners, to see if I can have some fruit. I'm also gonna do the supermarket looksee, and try and find them there. And a friend has got a packet of walnuts from last year, which she says I'm welcome to use. I don't know how well walnuts last, or keep, and how well the dye comes out when they're not fresh, so I'm gonna hedge my bets, and experiment with fresher ones, and her older ones.
The alchemical kitchen is twitching, getting ready to crank up once more!