Category: Ecoprints and Natural Dyes

Posted in a collusion of ideas, Contextural Fibre Arts Co-operative, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, embrilting, Residency 2017

maybe it’s this, maybe it’s that, maybe it’s neither, or both

Posted on by arlee

I’ve never before experienced such vacillation in choosing to do something! The residency exhibit is going to be hung Aug 27th, and i still haven’t started anything for it, going back and forth with so many, too many ideas that just aren’t inspiring, or gelling. I *do* usually have a fallow period after completing a big work, but months long is just not going to cut it.

I am still looking at this cloth though:

now with these:

and maybe doing a free style work like this from 2010:

Haystack, 2010, hand and machine embroidery, naturally dyes, ecoprint. In private collection.

combined with elements from this (2011):

“Girl: Strength”, 2011, natural dyes, hand and machine embroidery, in private collection

Obviously this year the work will be much smaller than previous years, due to the time frame! Best get cracking!!!!

Posted in "OPINIONATION", Days of Honey, Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, journal: lessons to learn

becoming a purple thread

Posted on by arlee

Certainly a vanity, thinking one knows everything, but i’ve always subscribed to “Learn something new everyday, and you know you’re not dead” — i *don’t* know everything, but i do my research and i’m happy to not only do the correct thing, but to riff on that once the lesson is learned. If i need an affirmation of something i’ve done or a puzzlement needs solving, i’ll ask, but i don’t JUST ask and expect the whole answer “with 8×10 glossies and paragraphs and arrows on the back” to be handed to me on a silver platter.

I remember asking a Contextural member a long time ago how she achieved a certain shade in her natural dyeing/ecoprinting, and she sweetly and truthfully replied “Every dyer has her secrets” with no smugness, and in all honesty. I took that to heart, learning what i could and often failing because i didn’t follow the basics first.

I’ve got that part well sussed now, and am quietly thrilled with the tried and true, and the experimenting. All of this past week’s naturally dyed threads here have notes on each as to what it is, but you’ll have to figure out certain parts for yourself 🙂

And the details in close-up:

Where these threads go next will be “the long white gown”,  metaphorically speaking.

Posted in garden dye plants, hollyhock

string theory in the hollyhock bed

Posted on by arlee

EDIT March 30/19: Since these experiments, i have come to realize, and proven with wash and lightfast tests, that hollyhocks of any colour are NOT dyes. They contain anthocyanins, which are notoriously unstable, thereby creating “fugitive” colour only. Even my Dye Guru, the expert herself, Jenny Dean, has confirmed this. Samples bleached out in the sun in two weeks. All blooms are now in the compost.

 

In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. It describes how these strings propagate through space and interact with each other. Here’s my version 🙂 Let’s see how one dimensional my threads are after they propagate with dyes, mordants and modifiers, and how they interact with a needle and cloth!

I’ve collected hollyhock blooms ever since i realized they could be used to dye with (2010). “Amassing” is not really a word i’d apply to this practice though: in the beginning i had huge swathes of them growing beside the house, but as the years went by, rust disease and aphids took their toll.

Above, this is what it looked like when we moved into this house in 2009.

And now……

very sad in comparison, but there is hope, because last year it looked like this:

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These were the darkest i’ve had before:

I have maybe 8 plants now, only 4 of which are any good for dyeing with. One of my summer morning rituals is to go with coffee in hand, and collect the finished blooms from all the dark flowering specimens. The pale pinks give barely any results, and anything in any other colour family yields nothing. Each plant gives up maybe 30-50 blooms each *over the season*, so there’s not a lot of frenzied picking activity! Patience and anticipation are the key words 🙂

This year i have this beauty in the side bed:

Darker than any i’ve had before, and with a huge bloom, i’m keeping them separate from the others, curious to see if there is a difference.

These are the wool threads i did with the smaller blooms collected from previous years:

I’ll have to wait probably until the end of August to have enough of the new darker blooms to work with though!

I have a fermentation hollyhock bath going as well, and will decant that when i can stand waiting no longer.

 

Posted in a collusion of ideas, Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, Residency 2017

keeping the ball rolling

Posted on by arlee

Definitely a different weight, lovely, looks like #5 perle when relaxed, but with tension in stitch will be equivalent to a #3–perfect!!

And i’ll be rolling it into balls–no desire to fight the twangles otherwise!

I had to resort to card bobbins after all for the previously dyed batch—the skeins are too fine to keep unsnarled otherwise, even in little zippies. (The silk i will leave as is ( :O ) as it actually is easier to unravel as i work!)

I’ll be doing all these colours again, as this new one is a silk/wool blend (previous was all wool), but am going to add some other colours as well, and some fermentation dyeing as well. I have a lovely vat of bubbling hollyhock…………….. I’m premordanting today, and tonight will pop them into their sweaty little baths.

I’ve been busy fondling and admiring these and figuring out what to stitch next. I think some will be on this fabric:

Tired yet of seeing that one languish in a heap!  I’ve never before experienced such vacillation in choosing to do something! The residency exhibit is going to be hung Aug 27th, and i still haven’t started anything for it, going back and forth with so many, too many ideas that just aren’t inspiring, or gelling. I *do* usually have a fallow period after completing a big work, but months long is just not going to cut it.

I might look to this for inspiration:

Haystack, 2010, hand and machine embroidery, naturally dyed cotton. In private collection.

 

Posted in Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, Probably talking to just myself, Residency 2017

slow slow summer

Posted on by arlee

All i’m doing is experimenting, and adding knowledge, no stitching since finishing “Tabula Memoria”.

In all honesty too, time at ACAD for the residency has slipped away and i am left with a little more than a month to go, with very very little to show for it. Most of my ideas though are being utilized at home though so no loss really!

 

As much as i love all my commercially dyed threads, especially all the permutations of the variegated ones, i also want more naturally dyed choices, so i’m doing it myself. I can’t/won’t be doing huge batches, but enough to keep me happy at least. I’ll still use the “boughten” threads, and hopefully if all goes well with the pre-mordanting, will have a range of natural dye colours to supplement the arsenal.

I’ve gone through all my dyes and have enough of everything to get a BIG collection of colours, after different mordants and modifiers. This is more manageable in terms of space, time and effort also, as the batches can be quite small for threads.

Hoofies crossed.

 

Posted in Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, FybreSpace the shop, Home Cookin' the Cloth, Residency 2017

euc in the house

Posted on by arlee

I missed a week at ACAD–summer holidays with the Greyman, and some serious Garden Hard time, both necessary things, and also time to think on things. If the school studio is too cool now for my favourite processes, what else can i do?

My favourite eucalyptus in “in season” again–that means it’s an import, as it just doesn’t grow in Alberta! One of the perks of working in the fffFlower Mines means access to things that just aren’t available in my garden or neighbourhood. There *are* certain “go-to’s” i can pick fresh, but the majority of plant materials that give satisfying results are neither “native” nor zone 3 hardy.

Yesterday i stitched in the home studio while these were percolating.

Two euc “trees” 🙂

 

LOVE this silk:

 

It was a good day.

 

 

 

Posted in Contextural Fibre Arts Co-operative, Dyeing, Ecoprints and Natural Dyes, Residency 2017

day three res

Posted on by arlee

Of course, usually by the time i post, it’s another day, in fact two days past, but………. This is part of the game, of what i do, hurry up and wait, no instant gratification, nightmares (yes!), anticipation and hoofies crossed SO tight.

(These are a mix of the two day’s results.)

Most are detail shots as that’s where the devil beauty is.

I have to start thinking about what will come of all this for the end of residency exhibition. This is Contextural’s 10th anniversary, but the theme is open this time, as we all work so differently. And i also realized that this is my 6th residency! (Although my very first one in 2009 was a self induced bust….i signed up for 3 months then too, all excited and drooling, and showed up TWO days, because i had NO idea what i wanted to do!!!!!!)

EDIT: got my idea/s last night as i was falling asleep 🙂

On Monday, i’ll be firing up an indigo vat there (two at home already, but impossible for me to transport by bus and train ), because, because, believe it or not, OMG, there are some participants who have never done indigo!

PS The rabbit showed up again, and was offended because i had nothing Rabbity to share, and YAWNED at me! Henceforth, he shall be Paul Bunyawn, ’cause he is a big rabbit 🙂