Blog entry
October
The sweet Service-berry is beginning to glow. In every season it is a beauty.
I desided to take a little break from dyeing silk and linen. The cooler days made me turn to wool for spinning and crocheting. It's hard to decide what to make - scarves, hats, or should I dye enough to crochet a blanket....? I've said it for years, but one of these days, I'm going to try felting.
This rose reminds me of the brick-red madder shade.
Happy morning
Our youngest son is coming home today to vist after a really long time.
This is a very happy morning...:)
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In the midst of major tidy-ing up, I came across these little odds and ends of wool yarn. They were dyed with cochineal, indigo, and coreopsis flowers.
Madder silks
I've been gathering amd sorting some madder dyed silks .
Organza
Raw silk
May
I dyed some hemp silk fabrics with madder roots and indigo. This is one of my very favorite,most intersting kinds of fabric.
This piece of hemp/silk dyed with madder seems to echo the tulip shades.
The madder patch is thriving
Clearing out the boxes again
It's time to sort through the heaps again.....
Most of these are pieces leftover from other projects and experiments.. Some have imperfections. I was waiting to find a way to use them or fix them. I'm pretty sure I won't after all.
This one isn't so bad really.
Vintage silk pieces dyed with cochineal, weld, indigo and madder roots.
Fancy vintage Japanese silk and fresh indigo leaves.
Silk organza indigo and snow
I'm so fortunate to be able to work with color every day. Off to fill up the baskets again!
November 2
November has arrived suddenly! It's been gorgeous - chilly and fresh, and tonight there may be a little snow. I've been rushing to plant hundreds of tulip and daffodil bulbs before it gets really cold.
There's so much to be done that I can hardly begin. One thing I have gotten done is to sort through some of the giant collections of silk scraps. Above is a little of the walnut dyed vintage silk.
Scraps of indigo dyed silk
Inspiration on the ground.
Coreopsis flower dye
I've been collecting these annual coreopsis flowers all summer. They're small but they pack a punch in the dye pot. These plants are getting a little ragged but are still popping out the blossoms.
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The brew has a nice, fresh medicinal smell
Silk embroidery threads dyed with coreopsis flowers. The one on the right was dyed with coreopsis and madder roots.
August sunrise and madder
Early morning on the back porch . The sunrises seem different lately. The angle of the light is interesting.I guess this is always true, but I'm sure noticing it a lot these days.
Interesting morning sky
As usual lately, I'm still dyeing silk threads. Before dyeing the silk is exquisite.
Dyed with madder roots. I love the wide and surprising range of warm shades from madder.
The morning's work wound up.
Gathering linen
In the moments between visitors, phone calls and household chores, I sorted, washed, and ironed some odds and ends of indigo dyed linen fabric.
These are some of the leftovers from experiments and bits of fabrics I dyed and put away thinking I might use them in the future. They add up quickly.
Yellow and indigo moon.
None of these are "perfect", but they're still pretty good.
Id like to be able to mimic these patterns!
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!
Elsewhere