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.
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
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.
So far, July has been packed with projects and flowers
More Naturally dyed embroidery silks
Warmth and inspiration!
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Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)
Suddenly it's warm! The garden is joyful and beautiful. The back-yard colors inspire natural dyeing.
These silks were dyed with walnut hulls, coreopsis flowers, weld and indigo
Crocus
Violet shades from madder, lac and indigo
King Alfred Daffodils
Greens, yellow and blues from weld, coreopsis flowers and indigo
The very brave Scilla
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Indigo
Warm morning sky
I'm very grateful for this rare, lovely and warm Spring day.
December Silks
December has been filled with beauty and busy-ness. Happily, I've been able to squeeze in some of my favorite projects, including the dyeing of more silk threads.
After soaking in alum
Indigo
Indigo and weld
Cochineal, madder and indigo
Baby pastels (indgo, madder, weld, walnut)
More madder and cochineal
Coreopsis flowers, weld and madder
Walnut hulls
Cochineal and madder
Walnut, cochineal and madder
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Cochineal and snow
Wool Pot holders
Undyed wool loops
Years ago, a dear friend shared a huge 5 pound bag of pure wool pot holder loops with me.. Little did I know at the time just how valuable and hard to find these would become. I dyed the loops with natural colors, and made potholders for gifts and for sale.
June Inspiration
II've been dyeing silk threads in colors inspired by the velvety shades of petunias
Combinations of lac, logwood, madder and indigo
The milkweed flowers have begun to bloom. The air is filled with their heavy sweetmess. The tender, muted pinks seemed like the perfect color for some handspun wool yarn I've been saving.
Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca)
Handspun wool yarn soaked overnight in alum.
Summer
Officially Summer today, though to me summer really begins on June 1st.
Ripe!
The squirrels and blackbirds keep knocking them down.
Raspberries beginning to ripen
Milkweed
Madder stars
Milkweed and madder in a friendly competion for sunshine
Elsewhere