I've been busy...

I've been busy the past few days with more natural dyeing and experimenting with some new things.
Click on the photos for a closer view.

a paper star made from newspaper
tutorial from here

cotton/linen and scrim dyed with onion skins

silk on left and cotton on right / chinese tallow leaves and onion skins

more silk with chinese tallow leaves and onion skins

playing with stripes and dropped in dye bath

another cover with vintage quilt block
the ribbon is orange and white check as it appears in the reflection

weaving with linen thread and silk ribbon
just realized that this loom is for bias weaving.
lots of good info on old looms here.

this if for those who posted pictures in overalls
these are me in the 1970s in San Antonio, TX

Old Dried Leaves work really well...

I overdied the silk from last week that I bundled with fresh beet leaves which just stained the fabric but left no leaf impressions.  I used some more of the old dried leaves I had saved from last year---some oak, chinese tallow and a 3 petaled purple leaf that has a pink flower (can't think of the name right now).  I'm pleased with the way it turned out and plan on going out to collect some more leaves today. Looks like the chinese tallow leaves left impressions but the oak leaves just left some good color.

Onion Skins and Pokeberries

Glad I experienced dyeing with pokeberries, but never again. what a mess.....the color of the fabric after the bundles were undone was fabulous but after drying, ironing and washing, much of the vibrant color was gone. The onion skins, on the other hand turned out well. I put some vinegar in the water with the onion skins and added the fabric. All that simmered for about an hour and was left in the pot overnight. The silk turned out the best---it always does. Wish I had added some wool, but I forgot. Will definitely do the onion skins again. Here are some photos of before and after.
If anyone has had experience with dyeing with pokeberries, I'd love to hear about it.

Pokeberries, bundles, fabric simmering in onion skins

Before and After washing

Beet dyeing and 2 more steamed bundles

I did some beet dyeing yesterday and was disappointed that only the wool really turned a dark color. All fabrics were treated with alum before dyeing. Wool always seems to do the best in picking up the dye.
I also made 2 small bundles of leaves from a small rose bush. One bundle was with dupioni silk (which turned out the best) and one with muslin. The bundles were steamed for about 90 minutes and then put in a covered jar for 24 hours. Click on the photos for close-ups.

beet dyed, alum mordant

rose leaves on muslin

rose leaves on dupioni silk

Dye Bundle Revealed...

Kaite suggested I not wait more than 24 hours for this type of bundle and she always gives me good advice and I really couldn't wait much longer anyway---just so anxious to see what happened. The flowers don't show up at all and none of the blue color of the plumbago transferred. There are some definite leaf transfers and I'm quite pleased for my first try. Most of the pictures below will show duplicates--one is the original and one with the contrast on so you can better see the leaf shapes.

untied bundle

I even see a beast in this one...

More avocado dyeing and overdyeing...

Even though these fabrics were dyed exactly the same way as the ones in the previous posting, results were different. More beigey than pink. Did some overdyeing just to see what would happen to the black and whites and added some beige lace and white cord after before picture was taken. Will be trying beet juice dyeing next.

Results of Avocado Peel Dyeing

Well, I must say I'm a little disappointed.  There's a definite change in the color of the fabrics but I'm not sure I can say that any of them looks pink---maybe a very subtle pink.  They are shades of beige to me. I left them in the dye pot overnight so the fabric was in the dye for a total of about 18 hours. The biggest change was to the piece of white wool.  I still have the cut-up pits to play with but I'm going to leave those in the sun for a couple of weeks before I add fabric. I've ordered a couple of books from the library on dyeing with natural materials so I'll keep you posted with my experiments.
                                         

                                     

Update on the Avocado Peels & Pits

The peels dried within 12 hours exposed to the air. The pits are not dry yet. I'm feeling that inability to be patient so I've decided to put the peels in hot water with the alum treated fabric.  Will probably have time to do that on Wednesday. I will put the pits in water and out in the sun as I planned.  Hope to post an update on Wednesday or Thursday. If anyone gets any other information on the best way to do this, please let me know. I'm sure I'll be doing this again if I get any kind of a decent color.

Dyeing Fabric with Avocados

I came across the blog Gerdiary where I was amazed to see fabric dyed pink with avocado shells. I did some research and just had to try it. There were no exact instructions anywhere so I'm doing it my way based on what I've gleaned from others. I bought 4 avocados, peeled them and cut up the pits into small pieces. I'm drying both -- don't really know how long that will take. When they are dry, I plan on putting the peels and the cut-up pits in separate jars with water and will put them out in the sun for weeks -maybe-if I can hold out that long. I'm planning on treating some fabric pieces with alum, that you can find in the spice section of your grocery store. I'll then put the fabric in the jars with the liquid and leave them in the sun until it looks like the fabric pieces have picked up the color. I'll keep you posted on how this goes. You can see from the pictures that the pits are already turning orange.  And of course, I cut 2 fingers with the knife when cutting the pits.  So, if you try this, be more careful than I was.

Painted Fabric and Paper Towels

These pieces of fabric were painted with Setacolor paints, crumpled up and put in a plastic bag and set in the sun for about an hour. Kind of looks like colored ice.




These are paper towels that were used to clean up drips and spills of paint and dye. Will have to start cleaning up spills and leftover paint with fabric. Some wonderful colors.