"silk sandwiches:" or how I ruched through my summer

Here's what my summer is looking like, and I am thrilled with upcycled silks on felt...I have been doing the markets and in between making these and of course, many other things, like a lot of eco printing and dyeing with nature...the st. john's wort is blooming, and so are many other generous
dye plants, and my indigo are thriving like crazy...it has been amazing to watch the indigo plants (tinctorium) just adjust to all kinds of weather and still pump the new leaves.  I have a small patch in the garden and several potted ones, and the potted ones seem to be larger, which I think has to do with the warmth the black pot provides and the fact I have them in sun most of the day whereas the garden ones get less sun but seem to be thriving nonetheless. My woad has gone to seed and I have collected the seed head and have a number of smaller plants which I will harvest later this summer.
All is going along really well considering June was one incredibly wet month, but now the temps are in the seventies which is quite doable.
And "ruching" I love what this does with silk on wool and the patterns that show up when not expected, another type of alchemy, a bit more predictable but a surprise and delight always.  I have been using many dimensions of silk, and many variaties and they all speak a different language with wool...and of course, the type of wool also plays a big role in the alchemy.  I have been so thrilled with the "silk sandwiches" that they are quite addictive.....so more sun, more felt, and more summer please...

kissed by Cortinarius

It has been a busy, busy time as I can't seem to get off the workbench since I retired a week ago, and have been gathering, picking, felting, dyeing, spinning, weaving and generally having a lot of time and also have been working on a new series I call "Botany and Rust" which is printing with fungus, rust and botanicals on silk, and then felting onto them or not....'
I often smile when I think that it was years ago I saw India Flint's work, (she being one of the queens of this process) and thought, "what the !@#$#@! is that`` and then even before that many years ago in Fiberarts Magazine, seeing an article with photos of ``compost dyeing`and thought `
`what the !""$/ `` is that.....and now here I am with a lot of `what the !"/$"/`on my workbench and loving it all...and looking back on their works realizing how amazing it is...so here is my wee attempt at it and will continue to watch the alchemy happen and feel thankful for my vision change! lol

 The kiss

 more kisses and eucalyptus

whatsamadder

Here are my latest samples of walnut hulls with a difference.  After reading Jenny Dean's blog I thought I would try her technique of walnut hulls with a little madder...so I had walnut hulls soaking since the fall, although they were black hulls found on the ground, not green ones, and I had madder from Earthues in the extract format.  I also had some BFL that I had mordanted with alum and COT for other dyeing, and some silk, silk/merino and BFL that I had not mordanted....and proceeded by straining the walnut hulls, then mixing and heavily straining the madder, as I know what it looks like when trapped in roving, not a pretty site, and then put the wools/silks into the vat, and brought to heat slowly and simmered for about 30 minutes, then cooled in the vat....well, was I shocked.  I don't think I had ever pulled wool from a natural dye vat, where the colors were so radicalled different.   Guess which one is the mordanted BFL....so that would be the red one, and the other three starting from the left, BFL (unmordanted) and unmordanted silk roving and silk/merino....apparently that mordant makes one huge difference....
I did save some of the liquor from the walnut hulls, so I can try another type of madder extract and see if that makes a difference.  Jenny tried this with madder in its natural form and did not get these results, leading her and now I, to believe it must be some chemical that they use in extracting process....so all very exciting and it was good to use some of that walnut slurry, although I was impressed that it had no mold on it, and did not smell bad after being contained for many months, other natural dye vats can be quite moldy. 
so onward and upward into the realms of rug weaving and dyeing. 

Still trying

well,here I am on my new I pad 3, and trying to post photos, because what is a blog without photos! But so far I can't figure it out, so boring blog post, but Iam alive and well, and after the last market where I took my new rugs, I sold eight!!!!and have two left. Who would have guessed they would be so popular. S I am winding more warp and weaving while thinking of felting new things...so much to do, spring is so fecund on all levels!

sleying the reed...

Still in the weaving frame of mind, although I am keen to felt again...just too little time, too many creative thoughts, no elves to help manifest it all and spring is springing here...the snowberry leaves are growing and the herring fleet is in and doing their herring thing...eagles galore, and daffodils who don't seem to mind that it was almost freezing last night...I love weaving although it is work and tiring at times, but probably because with rugs you really do have to beat them solidly and so my shoulders are doing a lot of work, one can actually work up a sweat weaving, just as in felting...I have a lot of cheesecloth ordered for felting, and many patterns in my mind to work with flat pieces of felt so that is very exciting.  I am away from it all for a few weeks, and then will step into gourd work and felting. I am having a small show the beginning of May with a friend, and will do gourd work for that show, I have a gourd site, www.cedart.net where my gourd work is displayed should anyone want to visit .....but felting is really where I want to be next so we shall see....ah spring, so many creative thoughts...I just love it!!!

weaving up a storm

and this is what I have been up to for the past three weeks, carpets, learning to weave once again, and
weaving thick, lucsious carpets from l00% Wool, and as an added bonus, they are selling, which is
wonderful.  It all began with refusing wool, and loom from an old friend who quit weaving and thought her daughter would take it up, but she did not want to, and so the offering began..,I held it at bay for over a year, " no, I couldn't possibly take on another obsession, I have felting, dyeing and gourding, and basketmaking and sculpting, but one day, woke up and thought, YES, of course I want your wonderful wool and loom, and your gracious offer, what was I thinking refusing such an offer....and here you have the results.   I now have a 45 inch loom in my house, and much wool, all of wonderful colours, handspun, and plied 4 yes, 4 times, to create a wonderful weft, and so thick and soft I have had to hide them from the cats...they are definitely a cat magnet....
and so felting has stepped aside for the month, but feel it building again with a vengence.....so will
weave for the next two weeks, then have to travel for two weeks and then gourds and felting...
I can hardly wait for the days to begin as I am having such fun each day, not to mention the stinging nettles which have just arrived and we are eating spanikopita without the spinach just the nettles, so spring is springing, and life is good!!!

New Year's Mantra

May we break boundaries, tear down walls, and build on the foundation of goodness inside each of us. May we look past differences, gain understanding, and embrace acceptance. May we reach out to each other, rather than resist. May we be better stewards of the earth, protecting, nurturing, and replenishing the beauties of nature. May we practice gratitude for all we have, rather than complain about our needs. May we seek cures for the sick, help for the hungry, and love for the lonely. May we share our talents, give our time, and teach our children. May we hold hope for the future very tenderly in our hearts and do all we can to build for a brighter tomorrow. And may we love with our whole hearts, for that's the only way to love.....
I know I have posted this before, but it is worth saying over and over again...I read it a few years ago on a blog, and thought it was just so right....hope all of you have a wonderful, heartfelt New Year and that we continue to look for the goodness in each of us. 
thanks so much for reading my posts and making my world richer. 

Peaceful thoughts

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Greetings to the coming of the Light

Being as it is dark about 4 o'clock nowadays we are eagerly awaiting the coming of the light and the season of the lights...here are our best wishes for you and yours at this lightful time of the year. 

off the cuff

Here is a selection of Christmas gallery works that I have made most recently... the first are felted bracelets which were inspired by Anita Larkin, and are made over copper wire so that they are adjustable and flexible.. Anita Larkin is a wonderful feltmaker in Australia, and does a lot of sculptural work...she was very generous in sharing her process and I have had much fun making these/
The next photo is of work inspired by a wonderful Canadian feltmaker, Marjolein  and I have been making these pod type pieces for quite awhile and just recently making them into neckpieces. 
They are so organic and rich that I wanted to be able to wear them so the neckpieces came to me late summer and I moved on the idea, extending what I had already learned...
The third pic is of cuffs made with silk that was dyed in multi colours and then lightly felted with wool on the inside.  I have made a large selection of these and they are lightweight and very organic looking, I do prefer nuno with the silk side out, as I have stated before, so these are really a way to
utilize that process and make them very appealing to me. 
I have just returned from the Christmas Faire here on the island where I live, and the cuffs were really well received and the neckpieces, in fact considering the power went out and we had to close two hours early, I did quite well, and so many people love felt.. It is really taking off these days.
I always remember when I first started felting with my good friend and mentor Alma Schofield, that there were about 5 or 6 felting books on the market and it was not very well known by the general public, now the story is quite different and there are so many wonderful felters in the world.  It has been fun watching the resurgence of the craft of felting and seeing how things come full circle on so many of the arts and crafts movement.  Wonder what will be next....
for me  the next week-end is a two day event on a neighbouring island, and hopefully the sun will shine and the power will stay on ....in the meantime, mushroom dyeing is on the table, and have done some cuffs with the mushroom dyes, and with the eucalyptus, which is the plant that truly "keeps on giving:" lol

dance of abundance

Cortinarias are popping up but what type is still in question...perhaps "croceus" but perhaps one of the other hundred of types of these shrooms, but these have lovely tan tops and gold/orange gills, and now I have them at home have separated the caps from the stipes and have cooked the caps and soaked the stipes...the wool is cooling in the mordant and tomorrow will be the telling moment.  I believe my water is almost neutral ph although I did use tap water.  Oh the fun of fall.   I was able to pick some today but due to a cold, dh picked a lot in the past few days as well as these photos, to let me see where he had picked...love the photos...
tomorrow I will start cutting and  soaking the hydnellum peckii (older) which we got on our camping trip last week up north. There were no young ones but a few older ones, so I will try them.
The trip was a great success as the weather was good enough to camp and the shrooms were out. No cauliflowers, and no lobsters which is quite a surprize. 
So the hunt continues, for colour and shrooms...I love the fall

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL FELT UNITED DAY....something blue, which was the theme and purple but can't find anything purple except this print. 
This is a wall hanging of a sunflower which is about 5 feet long and two feet wide....it is beaded around the edges of the petals, and some free motion embroidery on the surface with a lot of french knots. 
Hope everyone is having a wonderful felting day. 

Summer sanity

Here is where I have been this summer, or at least part of the summer, felt jewellery, and felted vests and nuno shawls and now harvest and stopping to eat peaches and dry them....the markets are almost over and I have  a few orders to fill and now back to work for three days a week.The pictures are of a few of the neckpieces I sold this summer, and the top piece was inspired by work of several artists, and hopefully I did something original with the piece...I have several pieces of these lichen/sea anenomes and they are turning into the neckpieces and look great..I made several before I knew what I was going to do with it...I just loved the process and now it is paying off with new ideas, so I was thrilled...I showed them at a local gallery and they were much commented on and that was before I made them into jewellery.   the other two were pieces made earlier, the shibori indigo beads which has a definitely japanese flavour to it, in my mind, and the multi coloured fun piece was quickly sold.....it was a wonderful summer, not hot, rainy enough to keep the garden happy and fruitful, and enough people at the market enjoying my work to keep me satisfied, not to mention selling work which allowed me to buy more supplies...like some lovely silk, and some fine merino rovings...so I am busy dyeing and doing some eco printing and then felting into it, and some gathering of dyeing supplies.  Fall is an amazingly busy time, and it sneaks up on me every year.  I love the fall and I hope we get a long indian summer and then lots of rain for the mushrooms, that would be perfect.  I have been doing indigo dyeing and mordanting like crazy and even did a cochinel dye bath, and it is still giving me colour.  Have done some ragweed, and some oregon grape dyeing as well and will have photos shortly.   People really appreciated the felting at the galleries, and you can see that it is more generally recognized, and so the felting world is definitely expanding.   I can see people are really seeing the felt work and appreciating it.  Also the natural dyeing, although I don't exclusively do that, I mostly do it with a dash of synthetic every once in awhile...and this week the synthetics were in teal and deep rusty ochre, and I really like this combo....so back to the workbench and more fun and obsession...hope everyone is enjoying their end of summer and looking forward to a long and fruitful fall.

oops

Did want to correct the previous post, as it is not a natural process, as chemicals are used, but do not exhaust dangerous fumes, and is not a fermentation but a reduction process.....will post more pics as soon as the fibres are dry and showing their true "blueness" very very excited...

Indigo cold vat

Definitely into the blue realm today, after making a vat of indigo with a new method, thanks to the teachings of Barbara Shapiro, who was so generous with her teachings, (she does workshops) and is a wonderful artist and weaver, here are the results of my cold vat of indigo, no chemicals and can safely be poured on your garden once the ph is neutralized...how cool is that!! major cool...
and it is looking good...this is the silk boucle, which sucked up the blue, I have done four consecutive dips and this is the colour wet, it will fade somewhat in colour once it is dry but I am in love with the new method of dyeing with indigo, and see much more in my future. I will now attempt to overdye some of my weld, etc, yellow natural dyed wools and see how that works, and also some silk material that I would love to felt with if dyed in indigo. The skeins are dripping as I write, and will dry overnight before I rinse them and do a vinegar rinse to bring the ph back to form for the wool...I am sooooo excited by this, and dh did a video of me doing it and you can see the yarns going from green to blue as they oxidize...oh let the magic continue...we love natural dyeing and you cannot have too much alchemy in your world as far as I am concerned....and this is definitely alchemy!
back to the indigo and there will be more.

Solstice obsessions

Here is the solstice post and a small peek at what I have been obsessing over....eco printing on muslim, is the first shot...and I wrapped this in an old bed spring and which made rust marks after a few days, then I overdyed in eucalyptus....which does miraculous things because even some of the rust that was invisible, was brought out by the tannin in the eucalyptus.   Am learning more and more about eco printing on materials from the queen of eco dyeing , India Flints book, which is full of fabulous inspiration....Amazing how things change, as the first time I saw her work several years ago, I really didn't appreciate it, even though I was into natural dyeing I just could really "see" it....and then voila, I saw it and loved it, and am working with it although I am not very adept at it yet.....so many processes in my head must keep more notes the older I get, sometimes I begin something I have done before and don't remember until I am half way through it, that I had done it easier and better before, so notetaking will begin in ernest...through necessity, as I am more of an alchemist than a notetaker....I love the not knowing usually, rather than the detail repeatable process..  The next is some nuno felt shawls I did awhile ago and haven't posted yet...now I have a huge table, thank god, I can work larger than before...more work more fun, more room..Am beginning a new series of work, which is going slowly  because of a sprained right wrist but it is moving.   Summer is here, the garden is wonderful and the days doable in felt..... what more can I ask...well, more silk materials, more wool....okay I could ask for more but I am definitely blessed.

fairly fleeced

Raw fleece has been involved, and lots of water and soap, and some silks and cordage, all very invigorating and loving all the natural fleece, of course, I could always use more and different textured fleece. I have some very short very curly black face >>>something fleece  which I can't remember the name of , if anyone could help identify I would be grateful as that is the fleece I need, (want) now to add to the textures.  I have some but they are all dyed and I wanted to use the natural tones....I am making a triangulated bag from the bottom photo, and it is still metamorphing into, ??!@@
who knows but it is fun....and the larger piece is also destined for a bag...It was fun using the locks again, as mostly I have used them for collars and boas, but this was more random, although the technique was useful to know...I am working on a wee series from nature and will post more when I have worked it through...very fun..and also have wrapped some bed springs in muslin, and then put it in eucalyptus bath...which tended to turn the rust black and dye the rest camel coloured...very attractive and also have some bundles which were a mix of petals, lemons, leaves and that bundle is still holding its mystery...ah, I love that expression....."holding the mystery"   I think that is the alchemy I love about doing creative work.

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.

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