the mystery of indigo moons ...

back in November 2016 I attended a workshop on indigo dyeing
with maker Sarah Johnson at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance

before we got going with the dye...

Sarah gave us a short talk on the history of dyeing with indigo

a bit about the plant leaves and how to make up the dye bath ... "dos" and "don'ts"

and showed us various ways of creating patterns on cloth and paper with resists

to save time, Sarah had already made up the dye bath in preparation for the workshop

and kept it warm in a large vat so it was ready for us to use

here she is stirring the dye very carefully so as not to get too many air bubbles in it ...

I'm used to dyeing and experimenting with different methods using resists etc.

but I had never used a clamp as a resist before ...

a long strip of cotton fabric was folded concertina style and clamped together

before dipping in the indigo dye ... the longer you leave it in the vat the deeper the colour

(some people also use blocks or disks before clamping)

so ... now I know how all those perfect indigo moons are created that I see around the net

these are my indigo moons ...

and other cotton fabrics with folded, tied and waxed resists

resists with wax on cotton and paper

tied resists with elastic bands

squares created with pressure resist using wooden blocks and rubber bands

we each dyed a large pile of cotton fabrics and a calico bag to take our samples home in

I used all the techniques of folding, wax resist and tie dye resist to decorate my bag

dipping the bag in the dye at each resist stage

and this is the back of my bag ...

I lined the bag with greaseproof papers before applying the wax to the bag

and was rather pleased when I discovered that, not only did it serve it's purpose of

preventing the design on one side of the bag ruining the design on the other side,

but also had the potential to take the dye itself ...

so I experimented with creating waxed indigo patterns on the greaseproof paper ...

it was a fun, playful day with friends

we all went home happy with beautiful bags full of useful samples

that will come out one day for just the right project

at the moment ... I'm enjoying having them hanging up in my studio for inspiration

back to the Surface Treatment Workshop ...

I've finished up my samples (pretty much) working with aluminium foil

just to prove to myself that the last samples weren't a "fluke"

I painted another seascape on the foil using the pva glue and acrylics

I think I like this one even more ...

for the crackle, layers of paint and movement of the sea

like beach streams ...

in the last post I talked about drawing on the reverse of the foil instead of embossing

this creates great possibilities for working your own designs

I tried it with really simple pebble shapes to see how it would work out ...

I gave it a colour wash and then painted in some of the pebble shapes

using watercolours / h2o paints ... but zapping with a heat gun between applications

it's interesting and has potential as a technique

above ... I embossed the foil with pieces of real seaweed

before applying watercolour and h2o paints

and finally (with the foil) ... here are my limpets

a 3D piece capturing the texture of the limpet shells

and painting into the foil

(not finished yet ... in progress ... I've still got to add markings with artist pen)

1. silver and shell necklace 2. shells of all shapes 3. prehistoric

4. natural collage 5. conch 6. shell fragments embroidered brooch

7. spiral 8. ying/yang 9. limpet colony 3 10. seaside shells 11. shell 12. shells 13. shells

some seaside inspiration from my flickr page and favourite artists / images

1. sneak 2. seaweed watercolour,A4 aprox 3. these are the places I call home 4. shells 5. old and new 6. acrylic ink 7. vintage monogram stamp  8. name tags 9. porthminster point 10. . 11. lost dolls and her second helping 12. the pigeons - 2009 13. blue shells on ice - land 14. tinted child as the tide comes in 15. lari's inkpot 16. sanctuaire 17. old 18. aperture 19. ink 20. tiny portrait series - a group 21. seaweed Isle of Wight 22. . 23. . 24. cromer beach137 25. shells of all Shapes

I've worked on covering my sketchbook and can now spend a happy afternoon

gluing in my samples for The Surface Treatment Workshop

I look forward to posting the next workshop samples

on Wednesday - experiments with masking tape

thank you for reading and for all kind comments x

waiting for tiny stitches and marks

almost two weeks have passed since my last post

 

it's been rather busy on all fronts with work progressing in my new home

a new en suite bathroom is underway but not without an incredible amount of mess

and at the same time I've had family staying with me for the past two weeks

 

misty in Mousehole

 

we've managed to get out and about a little ... not helped by the weather at this time of year
some days misty and other days bright and sunny (but very cold with sleet and hailstones)

and most days ... grey and big blobs rainy

 

nevertheless ... I find myself grabbing the camera most days

because even when it's grey and misty ... it provides a great

neutral background offering lots of potential for creative photography

 

I really hope to become a better photographer with time and love to practice new techniques

so I've just bought "a master class in digital photography"

so that I can work through the step by step processes

and play with some of the things you can do to a photograph
 

I will dabble throughout this year ... but really it's going to be my pet project for 2016

turnstones on St. Ives pier

yesterday I spent the morning "pottering" in St. Ives with my mum

she was very patient while I took hundreds of photos for creative play

 

for me, photography is a really quick way of capturing inspiration for my textile work

plus the images give me a lot of pleasure to create

 

on one of the piers in St. Ives (the lifeboat pier) the turnstones were fun to watch
I think, perhaps, these are babies as their plumage was very soft and fluffy

above is an old postcard of The Sloop Inn on the harbour in St. Ives

which I photographed from a different angle with red fabrics reflecting on the image

the original image was mainly white with ochre and umber tints

but I think the touches of red lift it and shift the focus

I enjoyed playing with the image (which sits on my mood board in my studio)
and this is the same again ... but with a "cine" landscape frame and sepia tones with the red

 

I wonder if these boys went on to be fishermen when they grew up ...

back to textiles ... and here sharing some more little landscapes in progress

it's nice to work with warm tones ... which will turn into fruit plots and allotment pieces

there is quite a little pile of them now ... waiting for tiny stitches and marks

I haven't forgotten that I promised to practice new stitches

and once family have gone home I will get more time to concentrate on them

I did think that the placement of fabrics on this one looked a little like an allotment shed

with a sweep of green silk field

also quite liking the bias and frayed edges on the silk

the rich blend of colours ... "late summer ... into autumn"

the ideas are coming through ...

soft pink berries in my garden

I photographed these berries in my Cornish garden

a garden that is new to me and one that I am just getting to know

they are like pale pink snowberries ... does anyone recognise them?

 

the colours in my piece below are similar
I'm obviously drawn to the warm pink gold tones at the moment

 the bases of these small landscape pieces were put together on my last Crow Day with Jo

and, actually, I am looking forward to some peaceful stitching time

the metallic fibres were ironed and bonded into a fabric on which I have added

metallic paint and gild alongside painted papers and silk snippets
 

so pretty and shimmery

 

there hasn't been a lot of time for anything much the past couple of weeks
any spare time I had was used to organise samples into sketchbooks
but I did quickly get a largish piece of silk (ponge) space dyed

 

this piece started out as an eco dyeing experiment but it went horribly wrong

I caught my silk on the pan and burnt three small holes through the silk layers

 

as I had no preconceptions of how the experiment would evolve I wasn't put off ...

 

I just threw the silk between two jars of dye that were already on my worktop

the colours were green in one jar and rose madder and gold in the other

and I painted on some gold on top

the "interesting" marks on the pan are where my tulip dye boiled away :o(

(I was multi tasking at the time!)

the colours are rather lovely in real life and I hope to use

the pieces of silk in more landscapes, hearts and small pieces for cards

 

this looks just like a pond or rock pool full of coloured seaweed

so perhaps a few pieces of silk may find their way into a beach inspired heart too

 

I left the silk piece in the dyes for 4 days
and yesterday I added some pink mauve to the rose pink end of the silk
it's come out beautifully ...

 

and already my head is swimming with delightful stitchy thoughts



I'll be back soon with a few photos of St. Ives and a seaside post
thank you for reading my textile rambles
have a good weekend everyone ♥

Hand Dyed Fabrics

Thinking about my fabrics for the tropical art quilt I experimented with different ways of colouring and dyeing pieces of cotton and calico. These are small samples that I recorded in my sketchbook and include cotton dyed with silk paints and salt crystals, shibori on silk, tie dye on cotton and calico with batik wax trailing and silk paints

Spaced dyed cottons and threads using cold water dyes















Calico with hot batik wax spooned on
Marks made with a fork
Coloured with copper metallic silk paints

















These are early experiments with batik wax
I'm pleased to notice that I've improved the technique
a fair bit since these early samples!













The patterns were made by scratching into the wax with a fork













Cotton dyed and salt crystals added to draw the dye














More dyed cotton with silk paints and salt crystals













Cotton tie-dyed in yellow - I used a Dylon cold water dye















Silk dyed with a shibori resist - coloured with silk paints
















More cotton dyed with silk paints and salt crystals