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Longing for a piano
Mom's piano
Sometimes the thing our life misses
Helps more than the thing that it gets.
- Alice Cary
But I still long for a piano.
Delicious rain
Though all around us there seems to be plenty of rain falling, it's been dry and really hot here for a long time. Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed refreshing cool showers. For once, I didn't have to spend hours dragging the hose around!
Impatiens balfouri
The flowers are drippy and rejoicing
The Japanese indigo seems to have grown overnight.
They even look great as they melt away
Hibiscus
Today there are happy new flowers to take the place of the rain-soaked ones.
Greens
I often receive customer requests for more green silks. This is always a welcome excuse to experiment with shades of yellow and indigo
Sometimes the yellow comes from coreopsis flowers. Even the red ones give yellow dye.
Reaching naturally dyed green is intersting and challenging
It's so rewarding to see the different, (un-repeatable) shades!
Wool scarf...learning from mistakes
Today I tried making a felted wool scarf. I've had a box of wool fleece waiting for a really long time. After watching a you-tube video in which 2 ladies used a wool base for their scarves, I cut a strip of wool fabric as a foundation to start with.
Then I layered on a bit of roving. As it turns out, not enough, and not the right color.
Next the unwashed, uncombed dark brown locks and wool. The tips are sun bleached orange and yellow.
It took hours to cover the whole piece with the dark wool
August
Summer is ripening
Phlox has a sweet, somehow sad fragrance
To commemorate the end of July, I made a small harvest of Japanese Indigo leaves yesterday. . I dyed some silk organza.
Fresh indigo
I had a chance to do some fresh-leaf indigo dyeing yesterday. Sadly, my camera is misbehaving and I couldn't take pictures of the whole process.
I don't know any other way to get these colors without fresh indigo leaves
It's a real summer treat!
Selenicereus grandiflorus
Selenicereus grandiflorus
After several years, the selenicereus plant has bloomed!.
The buds are quite interesting. They start out as a fuzzy white spot on the stem, then grow to look like a rabbits' foot.
The flower bud pushes through the fuzz and elongates. To the immature mind, this can be a great source of silly laughter...:)
A little more dignified...
Some white showing through
Almost ready
Like fireworks!
July
So far, July has been packed with projects and flowers
Indigo and cochineal shibori scarves
Hand-spun silk yarn dyed with woad
More Naturally dyed embroidery silks
Inspiration!
June 29
June 29 is my younger brothers' birthday.
Climbing Westerland rose
The garden is celebrating with me!
Gratitude
Plenty of rain
Wild campanula
First sweet pea flower
Happy harvest
Thank You.
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