Ecoprints and Natural Dyes – Page 10

cochineal, FybreSpace the shop, Madder, osage, quebracho rojo, sandalwood

Easter dyeing

Posted on April 20, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

No eggs!

OH MY GAWDZ, this 34 year old madder!!!!!

No fuss, no messing around, our mountain-hard tap water, a couple of Tums, a bit of a simmer and BANG.

I think i’d be hoarding this stuff if i was parsimonious with my cloth–but then what’s the point? Just wish the supplier was still around!

Coupled with a chunk of silky silk velvet dyed in quebracho rojo, there are TWO of these packs in the shop, along with others (ONE each) in various permutations of osage, sandalwood, quebracho rojo and cochineal. DELICIOUS! EDIT: ~~ONE pack left of the seven.~~ SOLD OUT

I will be dyeing again this week, and will have more packs in the store, slightly different.

embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, Samara

stop screaming at me

Posted on April 10, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

While I work on the Crone piece, Samara is quite jealous of being left behind, and is yelling at me to work on her too. Next week I will alternate to keep things interesting. (Photo edit and flip, as the left is the real piece 😆. )

OMg, this is SO juicy, i have to get back to her!!!!!!!!!!!

Collision: the work begins, embrilting, in progress, journal: lessons to learn, Natural Dyes, Poetry: text and textiles

Note to Self: check notes to self

Posted on April 10, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

It might not be set in stone, but there is/was/is a plan for this piece.

I looked through my “stitchionaries” (photo detail files of work previously done), my stitch bibles, online at new stitches, scribbled and sketched and thought, drooled on my thread choices and pondered and pondered. How am i going to treat this section, without it being too dense, but also to “fit” with the first section done?

DUH. What’s the piece that prompted this?

Obviously, it’s not going to be squared off like this quick cut and paste 🙂

I think the leaf needs to be a separate piece applied on top of this section, and the embroidery done over and around it.

Collision: the work begins, embrilting, in progress, mordants and modifiers, Natural Dyes

building parts

Posted on April 9, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

Above, the first section completed. You can see the big difference on that worked section that the iron post modification made on the clear red of the original madder. (Post mod was done before stitching with quebracho rojo, cochineal and madder on silk and cotton threads.)

While i want the next section i’m working on to be a truer red, i want some nuance as well to riff the threads off. I tried post mods of soda ash, titanium oxolate and copper.

The soda ash dulled the red, the TO made it slightly orangey, and the copper, while darker and similar to the iron used before, is more what i wanted.

Though the lines are “obvious”, the threads chosen will soften the harder edges. Three shades of madder on cotton, silk and cotton, and a sandalwood on cotton should start me nicely.

I do have yet to decide which stitches i will use. I don’t want it as tightly massed as the finished section, but not really “open” and loose either.

Back to my Stitchionary for perusal and tests.

Collision: the work begins, embrilting, in progress, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads

don’t set it in stone

Posted on April 7, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

I’m not sure who snuck into my studio the day i pieced this section and made it a different shape than “the plan”. Doesn’t matter though, a plan is just a piece of paper, the work is what counts.

As i worked this, i also wondered if i had made myself extra work by piecing it first: does it matter that it’s many sections? Could i have done it as one piece which would have necessitated more marking, so maybe the same or more work to begin with anyways? From a distance, the diamonds don’t register as separate chunks. Would i feel as gratified if i had used one larger piece, that might have been closer to the original shape?

Does it make any difference in the end? If i had left the diamond shapes obvious around the edges, as i did this piece, maybe. Something to consider for future work. Should square pegs be forced into round holes? Reminds me of some ecoprint work that is COVERED in embroidery–well, now you can’t see the ecoprint, so wtf was the point of using it? Work with something, not against or despite it.

I could do this again, with smaller pieces and see if the rougher edges work. Mock up first, before i commit.

PS My quebracho rojo threads ran out, so i also used madder post modified with iron, dark cochineal, and a qr overdyed on bad lichen ( 🙂 )

Collision: the work begins, Natural Dyes

evolution start

Posted on March 29, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

This is what i love about textiles.

It just looks like a blob. It’s the amoeba then i guess that will evolve.

The shape and colour already changed from the plan. It’s the black centre piece near the Crone’s body.

Bits will be trimmed off, after the stitching.

And the stitch will add more changes.

a collusion of ideas, Collision: the work begins, in progress, Natural Dyes, Sketchwork

evolution

Posted on March 28, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

I don’t always plan out this much, or in such detail. I know things will migrate, mute, change, become more subtle or disappear.

It looks more complicated than it is.

It will be simpler when all the threads and fabrics translate the idea to form.

a collusion of ideas, in progress, Natural Dyes, Sketchwork

combo plate #1 or “how things come together”

Posted on March 28, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

This is how we riff in this studio.

Original paint sketch above, below colour adjusted in photo edit program–if she were madder (HA! I mean the natural dye of course 🙂 )

And what if i “translated” her like one of the figures from “Tabula Memoria”?

but gave her a background like this?

and treated some of the shapes like this:

I can do this.

a collusion of ideas, in progress, Natural Dyes

new thoughts

Posted on March 25, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

Hmmm, i don’t think this should be on a cloth background, mounted as i usually do on a stretched frame.

I made a start on the background, and i do like it, but i think any colour choice here fights with the shape, but even more with the intent, so, no “background”!

I looked online for mat boards, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s an odd size for conventional mats. I’ll have to now learn to cut my own framing mats, because i really think this would set it off better.

The white background is a bit too stark, so maybe a pale sepia tone would be better:

It still looks a bit “suspended”, but maybe that’s the point, setting it as a fragment?

Or really dark?

MM, may be! I don’t want “colour” in a sense, or i might as well go back to the cloth backing. So, neutral or black? (Deep grey washed it out.)

I’ve started working with other pieces too, trying different configurations. These may not be the “final” diamonds i use, but the fragment idea is still strong:

a collusion of ideas, Jam Day, Natural Dyes, Naturally dyed threads

no such thing as imperfect

Posted on February 22, 2019June 16, 2020 by arlee

It’s like gardening. You have to think of what will come up from fertile ground. The roots don’t show at all, there’s no movement of leaves, no budding of branches where birds rest, no twining of tendril or bloom tipping to sun. What colours will stay true, which will devolve/evolve/resolve to basic rainbow?

“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter.

It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.”

-Rumi

No more tears or tears.