May Moon

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

Turmeric

Silk dyed with Turmeric; then over-dyed with pomegranate.
I haven't been able to post here for months, as google randomly decided to not allow me access to the blog. Today, just as randomly, I seem to be able to post again.

Pomegranate & Tea dyed Silk

Exactly what it says on the tin!
Silk bundle with tea bags wrapped in it; dyed in pomegranate dye-pot.
I'm using some of the silk on a small piece of stitched collage. Slow stitching.

pomegranate

 Meantime.....in the pomegranate pot!

I'd left a piece of cotton in the dye, and forgotten all about it! It's been in there a couple of months, so it's taken quite well! Here is the whole piece.

 And here are some close-ups.

Lovely patterns; made with metal clamps, as I folded the fabric.

work in progress......

 Starting out!

 

 the stitched lines

 

The silk before stitches.

Dyed with pomegranate; I made it in a project with some young people at work. We did a project on Labyrinths, and plant dyeing.

The silk has been lying around, while I decided what to do with it. Then, looking through blogs, I found a reference to the native grasses of New Mexico; and how they (like all grasses) hold the soil together. An image came; and from that, I began stitching. This is very minimal, and with very neutral colours.   



plant dyed silk......

Tie-dyed green silk; popped into a pomegranate dye-pot. It's a bit paler than in the photo. Not quite so good definition.

White silk tie-dyed in the pomegranate dye-pot. This looks more 'metallic'; the reality, is greyer.

White silk with blue flowers pressed between it. Seems the bluebells created this blue. I wonder how long it will last? I used no mordants; the pomegranate is mordant enough, most of the time. The blue (bells) I fully expect to fade and disappear. I'll leave it a while, before I use it in any samples.
I've completed another of my samples; mounted it onto a stiff piece of denim. I'm considering using some final stitching on it; to really finish it. It's a relief piece; I used quilting batting for that effect. It's the only sample that has this. So far, anyway!

dyed threads

Those wooden stirrers that you get in cafes; the ones that have inbuilt disposability; replacing spoons, to stir our drinks. Those things....that I can't bear to chuck away...in case they come in for something!
Well......they've come in for something!
I save them, and then all the thread I use to wrap up my cloth bundles, or odd bits I drop into dye-baths, I wind around the wooden slats.
The more earthy tones I've got from the plant dye-pots I've done. The brighter colours came from when I was using dyes on the course last year. But the central 'yellow-y' colour comes from thread dyed in pomegranate. Very different result from the silk I dyed in pomegranate, which came out much more brown.

Ps; what's wrong with spoons?

pomegranate patterns

This was the cotton, painted with egg, before I dyed it with the pomegranate.

I just brushed it on randomly.

 This was the silk, also painted with egg; the brushmarks show up darker.

And this is my patio, after laying out the wet fabric as I took it out of the dye-pot! It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts, once it rains.



pomegranate dye #3

So this is some linen thread I put into the pomegranate dye-pot. The colour's very different! I didn't use any kind of mordant; just popped it into the pot. Maybe that's why it came out such a lovely golden colour?

Here is the wedding dress bodice, silk, with some man-made fabric flowers. The silk is a pale grey; the man-made fabric not taken at all. I dropped this piece in late on in the process. It wasn't in for long at all. Certainly not as long a time as the silk and cotton lengths. You can see the silk fabric behind the silk bodice. Noticeable how different the colours are. 

And finally the POT!
Direct off the cooker, and still steaming. The wrapped cotton and silk still amidst the mulch!

pomegranate dye #2

 A cut-up silk shirt; dyed with pomegranate.

No pre-mordant.

Painted with marks made by brushing whisked egg onto it.

 Out of the dye-pot, and onto the patio to be photographed; the silk still wet.

 The silk shirt dried. The colour is lightened again, as always.

Here you can see the brush marks made by painting egg onto the fabric.

The close-up shows some of the brush marks made by egg.

It's had the effect of darkening the pomegranate dye.



pomegranate dye #1

So last week I boiled up the pomegranate, and dyed some silk, and some cotton fabric in the resulting slush! Here are the results from the cotton;

 The cotton, wet, from the dye-pot, laid out on my patio. The cotton had been pre-mordanted by soaking it in soya-milk. I folded this fabric into a square, and held it together with clamps



 Still wet, and nice and shiney!

 After drying, this is how it looks; the fabric has lightened as it's dried, which always happens. The white 'squares' come from the clamps. There's a nice black edging to them, where the metal has had some chemical effect. The range of colours is lovely, and really surprising. Black, creams, greys, and browns. The browns look as though I've been rust dyeing.

Above; a close-up of the squares made by the metal clamps.

You can see the black edging, but the photo's not very good otherwise.