High fiber diet....

The season continues and now I am using the fibers I recently dyed, so that i can make room for more..it's getting a little thick around here with fiber, vars, dryers and spinning and felting...or like i prefer to call it "high fiber diet":))

: Boletopsis leucomelaena

Found the name of thatmystery boleotopsis.....yes'!!!!

Boleotopsis grisea or????

This is the one that dyed the yarns in the previous post...somehow this picture got lost in posting...if anyone has a better idea I am eager to find out what this is...

Boleotopsis grisea

It's my best guess so far and giving wonderful colours...very generous with giving up colour, the silver grey is on alum mordanted mohair, no additives, and the bronze green is on alum mordanted wensleydale locks and mohair, with ammonia....loving both colours and the exhaipust was a soft beige

having a hard time figuring out what it is for sure, so my best guess would be boletopsis grisea,and is fast becoming a favourite...let the mycelium keep blooming....

Sometimes more is better!

Mushrooms,  polypores, and more...the season continues to give up a bounty of dyeing supplies, love mother nature and her generosity.  I have been processing the bounty of last week  for the past three days, and now the fibres are being labeled and trying to keep them all straight ..which is not an easy job when you have about ten different  vats  on the go... But. Think I have them all sorted and really appreciate having premordanted fibers to test with.  I mordanted some commercially spun wool with, alum, another with iron and one undpmordanted.  I keep the three yarns in separate bags and when I want to test a dye bath I put one knot in the end of one six inch piece of alum mordanted wool, two knots in a similar length of iron mordant, and no knots in the unmordanted and then I just tie the three together and put in the pot as a tester, the. I can cut pieces of this to put in an after mordant bath or akaline and acid, and that way I can see the results without using a whole skein of fiber...it is a traditional way of testing and one which I so like having on hand.

Now the fibers are all put to rest I shall post pics of the results..

Abun. Dance

What a dance of gathering , soaking, dyeing, eating, it is endless this time of year.....lobster mushrooms, and sanguinea, phalelos, and paxillus, all creating amazing colours...what a time of year this is, and loving it all

Felt feutre !!!!! A first time Canadian event

Well back from a two four day trip to Salt Spring Island, where 

The first international Canadian event was held, with workshops, art shows, fashion shows and amazing teachers and students all magically put together by Fiona Duthie of Salt Spring, who did an amazing job for us all.   I so appreciate whAt she has done, and the energy and vitality she brought to the event. I got a chance to meet and tLk to many felters I have admired over the years and followed their work and their process and to meet them in person was a treat.  I went for a two day workshop with Marjolein Dallinga, which was a wonderful experience in itself.

I have been a big fan of her work  for many years and this was the first affordable opportunity to work under her and work we did.  the class was composed of ten folks who all were felters of varying experience and she worked us hard and thoroughly...and long days with great results.  It was a great all round experience and a pleasure to be a small of it all...apparently I went for only really sunny days and now home with a fire and rain, and a head full of new ideas and new techniques.  I was so pleased to meet Fiona in person, as she is an incredibly sweet open woman with great energy and it was an amazing feat to pull this off with such grace and humour, we could hear her laughing and teaching and 

I was so impressed.  

I hadn't been to Salt Spring since 1974 so many changes, much busier and still a beautiful island...and I managed to gather dyeing mushrooms while there, and eucalyptus of many varities

Below isa piece by Marjolein, and the owl was done by a man who lives on Salt Spring and I am sorry but I don't remember his name, but it was. Wonderful life size piece....all in all I had a great time and learned a lot about teaching felting and many new felt tricks....a humbling and gratifying adventure!

Holy Smoke Bush!!!

Just fell in love with the smoke from the smoke bush....did try this earlier but did not get these results,  and now am thrilled with their crackling effect. summer is winding down and the mArkets arts are one day a week so feel I have lots of time to harvest and work....of course, that is a myth...I seem to have si o many things I want to do and never enough time....sleep certainly cuts into my work play time!,,lol

dyed with goldenrod and with walnut and am gathering for the next blanket.....did more coreopsis and read a great post on fb about working with the naturals macrobiotic-ally, those found in your own backyard, as too many of the other sought after dyes are wracking havoc on their eco systems, not news really but brazilwood is a good example, as it is harvested from the heartwood of the tree thus being heartless it can't survive....not sustainable at all....so waiting for the shrooms to show and I know they are waiting to spring forth...

Coreopsis comfort

Just fresh off the loom

Boucle mohair brushed, merino and bfldyed naturally with buckthorn and coreopsis...it is sooo soft and user friendly....very light...now onto more 

Eco prints and another blanket ...I actually took an order for a lap blanket in naturals so am spinning some brown english leicester and dyed so e brushed mohair in so e walnut hulls from a year ago....the mold on the top was quite dramatic, but I believed Jenny Dean who said it helped to darken the dye, so I sieved it off, and it is a wonderful rich brown....will show when it dries, and of course no mordanting!!!! I am so speedy, anything quick and easy is a good thing...the weather has been very hot but amazingly it hasn't deterred me from wool ...apparently obsession wins over heat ...who knew! Lo

Maples and roses

Coreopsis comfort

In love with the coreopsis color ..just used the flowers and tipped it with an after mordant...it was quickto change   from yellow to this peach orange range...so lucky to have been given a large patch

So am working between felting, eco prints and dyeing naturally and weaving...not to mention food 

from the garden to be dealt with, life is full and feels good.

In the zone.....

Here are the latest in my silk eco prints...I apparently, am totally obsessed, who knew lol...

"Way down below the ocean"

it has been such a long time since posting, but perhaps I have finally learned how to download photos onto my blog from my ipad..life will be so much simpler that way...and so here is my first try at this...and here are some of my major obsessions this spring....the first is a stool which is for a fundraising auction for Grandmothers for Grandmothers

In July on our island they will auction off many chairs and stools which people have donated and others have volunteers their artwork, and thanks to a  great group of dedicated grandmothers they raise a substantial amount to send to the Stephen Lewis foundation....so thus my stool....very barnacle  and underwater look and shibori felted the top and then did felting on the rungs etc....very fun and now the page won't s roll, so briefly my new blankets one mushroom indigo dyed..very light and airy
And who knew I would become weaving obsessed....so nine blankets later and I am trying to detAch and move into gourds again .....wish me luck so very hard to leave soft fibers and all that color butI do  love gourds ...and then felting dyeing eco printing.....please hold me back..life is too fun...

Happy International Women's Day

  It has been too long...but its a good day to return to the blog....with the goddess from Marija Gimbutas book "language of the goddess" ....this was a wonderful book and this found goddess was from c 24,000 B.C!!!!!!!!!!!I was fortunate enough to have a friend visiting her and was able to give her an eagle feather as a token of my appreciation for her, not long before she died.
 So I made a shield with the image on it....it is about 3 feet by 2 feet, and is made from cast red cedar bark paper, with copper and mica and horsehair, bones, waxed linen and red cedar....I made this several years ago and today am putting it in the women's art show here on the island....

I have been busy with other water sports....like felting and doing workshops, have done two on feltmaking l0l and the third is coming up at the end of the month... These have been quite fun and lots of laughs and wool, and fibery stuff....am teaching the basic wet felting techniques, and once I have
done this will move on to specific techniques.  I am doing this in my glass room so the number is limited to 4 people, and the light is great and even if raining outside it is light and warm in the glass room....
I have also been working on some different felting techniques, and some needling, and dyeing. 
All in all an incredibly busy early spring.  Stinging nettles are being eaten, robins are signing,
daffodils are blooming and spring birds are returning...The herring is going full tilt, so the eagles, and sea lions are talking all day long.   The ocean is carribbean blue with lots of milt, and lots of fat
sea lions...it is the picture of abundance here, and I am constantly grateful...