a quickly composed piece...

I was inspired by Judy Martin's tutorial here on making dots. I had done reverse applique before but wanted to try making these small dots as eyes, which has been a discussion over on Jude's Magic Diaries workshop.

the dots are hand dyed silk and the outer cloth is hand dyed silk/linen

The next day, I took the rest if the hand dyed silk/linen:  

















and started cutting and moving things around:

I'm calling it 'reflections of the moon'

That little 'eye being' has paper moon eyes right now but they will eventually be stitched. There will be lots of stitching done here. There's another eye and a bird hidden in the cloth that needs to be enhanced. This little 'eye being' reminds me very much of 'marcel the shell'. I have linked it, in case you haven't seen this delightful video.

I did some more dyeing this morning using the tin cans. This time I dyed 2 pieces of cloth in the colorhue dyes before wrapping around the cans.

before and after pictures

on the left is a cotton cloth that was soaked in soy and then put in a green colorhue dye. it did pick up the green color but is no longer visible after the dye pot. on the right, is a habotai silk dyed blue with colorhue and there is a hint of color left.

These were simmered in the dyepot for about 1 hour and immediately removed, opened up and washed. It seems the iron content of the can is the one factor that is giving good results immediately. I forgot to mention that I did insert some leaves in the can wrapping. You can see a hint of them in the photos, but most of what look like leaves are just folds in the cloth. I am especially pleased with the way the silk turned out. Silk seems to never disappoint.

AND REMEMBER THERE IS A GIVEAWAY HERE: if you are interested in winning a pouch with a bit of bobbin lace trim, just leave a comment over on that post. The drawing is on Saturday morning.

my best dye results so far...and...

I did an unbundle this morning after 3 weeks of waiting. I think these results are the best I've gotten so far. I started out with white cotton soaked in soy milk for a couple of days. Bundled with eucalyptus leaves, onion skins and a few copper pennies and wrapped around copper pipe. Simmered in water with oak leaves. It seems using the soy milk as a mordant really makes a difference with the cotton.

cotton with euc leaves, onion skins, copper pennies and copper pipe

the circles are where i embedded copper pennies in the bundle

I see a swirling going on and some sun rays that will be enhanced with stitch

Some of you asked to see a larger view of my magic cloth.  So far, it measures 29" x 22" but will be approximately 48" when complete (don't know what year that will be). I would like to do as much embellishing as possible on what is here so far before adding more around the edges. It's just so much easier to handle that way.

measures 29" x 22" here

this area might wind up being filled with eyes of beasts at night

lots more stitching needed here

I split some Japanese silk in half and filled in with black and white

a black and white trimmed cloud raining on a bobbin lace leaf

Still working on the meditative stitching when I get stuck on where to go next with the magic cloth and starting to add some scribble stitches in color.

adding color to the meditative stitching

Over at Magic Diaries, we're talking about eyes and the designs they can initiate. This is my eye that I'm playing with. Hope it's not too scary.

So that's what's going on here. Lots to keep me busy for a while.

Finishing up loose ends...

I made my sister a necklace many years ago that she says she wears all the time. Well, it fell apart and it has been sitting here for a long time waiting for repair and a bit of a new life. I added the black beads because the silver ones were all worn away and I added an updated clasp. Hope she will like it.

lots of little fetishes that were popular long ago

I've been experimenting with cotton cloth and the resists I've been using in shibori. The colorhue dyes will not work on cotton so I tried the Dynaflow paints which are very fluid. Well, it was not successful but look at what turned up---4 pairs of eyes to play with.

those little circles were made by folding the cotton and using 2 CDs as a resist. the resist did not prevent the paint from spreading so I now have 4 pairs of eyes to play with.

Also hoping to be able to finish this little bobbin lace piece, that I've been working on for too long, before class on Tuesday. It's taken me a long time to feel comfortable with this craft but persistence is paying off. I'm starting to understand more and more with each piece.

11 pairs of bobbins with linen thread and lots of patience

And this is my 200th post, so tomorrow is the giveaway. Come back.