Thursday, May 26, 2011

Because I felt like it

Here is my latest endeavour in felting.  It is for the Grandmothers for Grandmothers auction here on the island and we all did chairs for auctioning.  I chose a stool and thought I would felt it...then I thought of zebra designs in the felt...all sounded okay and I began, then the "tail " of the zebra surfaced and I was super excited about doing it...just adding a little humour made the project way more fun for me, and I even added horsehair from a horse tail on the end...it felted in beautifully and the whole process was lengthy but rewarding and now onto more nuno shawl work...I have been doing a series of shawls from silk and wools, and now I finally have a 4 x 8 foot table to work on I have much larger pieces to consider....More work but very easy to do with the right table...I have been doing a lot of experimenting and playing and have lots of new ideas for the summer line of clothing and felting. 
Summer is still not truly here, the tomatoe plants are in the glass room in flower waiting for warmer nighttime temps and seems like we will be waiting until June here on the wet coast.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Wolf Moss makes my day

Here is my most recent dyeing with vulpina lepidinum, or wolf moss, gathered by my friend Isabelle, up in the Chilcotin...and it dyes with the clearest of yellows...I know, we can get a lot of yellows from natural dyes, but this yellow is so clear and just the right colour for me..I had dried this and then used it by soaking overnight, then bringing to a simmer and then sieving, and putting in some silk/wool combos that had been mordanted with alum and cream of tartar....I love the yellows...I was going to tip it with some iron but just couldn't bring myself to do that as the yellows were so wonderful.
I am now in the midst of felting and dyeing with eucalyptus, the leaves that keep on giving, and now that the blogging is going okay, I will post again soon....spring has definitely sprung, but still cool here, and my woad plants love it...I had one overwinter and it is tall and in bloom, started some new plants and they are loving this weather...they seem to like it cool. Have weld coming up all over the garden and so there will be no shortage of yellows on my pallet this summer.  off to felt...

trying yet again to post

Trying to post ...testing