The colour wasn’t quite as strong as I would have liked so I soaked it overnight in the dye bath. I wasn’t sure if this would wreck the prints at all.
Fortunately when I pulled it out the next morning everything was still quite clear.
Amazingly enough the ferns, that I thought had disappointed me by not printing, showed up after the soak.
Leaving it to hang where there was indirect sunlight also might have helped.
The colours shift and morph with the light.
It’s beautiful to watch.
I wanted a little more colour with this piece so I added 2 frozen purple irises and a whack load of dried oregano to the already murky iron bath from the last silk bundle boil.
I love how the string stripes the outer edge of the fabric.
Coral Bell’s leaf print.
Wild Rose, Purple Smokebush, Faint Coral Bell’s and the greeny one I think was a Purple Sandcherry leaf. Funny that it went green and not purpley. I have no idea why but it’s pretty cool!
This is the second length of silk I purchased for my all natural clothing adventure – 4 yards of silk twill bundled and eco dyed.
Laid out with fresh flowers and leaves.
My pretty eco bundle.
So far I’ve been steaming all of my eco bundles.
But then the wonderful Monika of Red2White suggested boiling them to actually get proper leaf prints.
I was a little sceptical of boiling to start with because when I was dyeing with the different flowers I didn’t want to get muddled brown. I wanted distinct colour impressions.
But for leaf prints, I realized, I wanted the shape and texture not really the colour so much so it didn’t matter if it got muddled.
I had pressed some leaves and gathered fresh ones and laid them out on a 2 yard piece of flat crepe that I had.
There was a wonderful dark, left over, liquid from previous steamings in the dye pot. I topped this up with water and boiled some big rusty bits in it for a while and then took all but one out.
The crepe was bundled and wrapped tight with string and then popped into the murky muddle for about 3 1/2 – 4 hours. I don’t remember exactly.
It turned out wonderfully!
Close up of maple leaf
Close up of rose leaves and smoke bush leaves
After fooling around with my free Dharma scarf for several dye baths I decided I wanted a finished piece to give my Mummy.
So, seeing as she loves the colour red I thought I’d use the purple sandcherry, which gives redish dye and throw in some dried oregano that I had for good measure. I was going to add red onion skins but I completely forgot.
I spritzed down the scarf with my half and half vinegar and water mix and then laid out the purple sandcherry and dried oregano alternately
This was steamed in the water from the last steaming – now a murky black liquid, I think the iris drippings reacted with the iron overnight and continuous steamings – for half an hour and then allowed to cool before it was unrolled.
The resulting colour was again nothing like I expected.
Again came the blue greens where I thought I would have reds and purples.
Please some one help me out! Is it the alum? The iron? The hodge podge mix?
Not that I minded the resultant glorious dark green with blacks, midnight blues and purply reds in spots.
I was going to let the scarf dry but then thought I would iron it to heat set the colour. A good rinse came next and I thought I was going to lose all the colour because of the amount that came out in the water. A lot of the bluer greens came out and it toned down quite a bit but there was more than enough colour remaining for me.
The iron was applied a second time and then a final rinse.
I’m so pleased I tried the oregano. It turned out beautifully.
The first 9 pictures are unwashed and then the last 3 are of the scarf in its final ness
All of this research made me want to start doing.
Something.
I was looking for a new business adventure and this seemed a lovely idea. Learn something new, create something that is from sustainable and natural sources and provide a service for those who love the process but not the work.
Dharma, a lovely site online, has a wide variety of silks and roving to choose from to get you started in nuno felting. With all the different varieties it was hard choosing what exactly I wanted and how much.
A proper business plan involves start up so $100 was allotted to sool investment and the fabrics and roving were chosen.
Silk twill, for good wear, for 1 dress and 1 tunic, maybe even a skirt, we’ll see what we can get. Then flat crepe for the skirt if there’s not enough of the twill and for the scarves/wraps.
Straight wool was the staring point for the roving but the alpaca and camel are calling my name. Doesn’t camel roving just sound lovely to you?
Now onwards to the felting…
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