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...

Are we busy yet? guess so...can't even get it together to take photos of my new works...and have sold a bunch at the local fairs...Just finished two fairs, and two more to do.  Seems very busy right now and am selling well so am very pleased as I have room to make more and inspiration to do it.  Have been travelling to one fair and another one this week-end....and the weather here has been wonderful. 
we have been blessed with no ice or frost yet, every year it is so different, remembering ice storms one fair on the next island, so it is a treat to have sun and some rain and some power outages, but it is still winter.   Felting has been alive and well in my studio/home, and am working on several things at a time, which is not unusual.  have orders for rugs, and felting and some dyeing but most of all, it is shroom time here for the dyers shrooms and so that is always such a treat to stop everything because i must go shrooming...slow shrooming is the way to go, and yesterday I found a lot of shrooms for dyeing.  It hasn't been the best year so far but I am hopeful it will continue...the usual spots are not so usual this year so the mycellium keep us guessing.  So much depends on the type of fall we have and this year it was dry and warm, I think some shrooms like that warm wet september to really come forth.  More postings once this season passes...as next it is decorating with lights, which is the best part of the season for me...I love the lights. 

In vested

The two circle vests were made the beginning of September and just photographed today, as I realized I hadn't taken any pics of them...they were fun to make, the first circular vest I made in July was so huge I had to work on the floor, which was no fun, and these two I made to fit a smaller person, and they just fit on my workbench, much easier but way way smaller.  I do like making them and would like to have a larger table to accomodate larger vests etc. but alas, where to fit it in my house....the other photo is of the wensleydale small neck collars, how I love those locks....I have been using them for years in my long boas, but decided to shorten them, as neck wraps and they are very cozy and flamboyant to wear but not toooo much. 
Went shrooming yesterday after our first day of rain in eons, and found some phaeolus schwienitzi, (*dyer's polypore) which was still young enough to give me yellows...I chopped it up and cooked it for only a short while then put the white collar in the strained bath, thinking I would tip it with iron
and get a lovely olive tone, but the yellow was so lemony and clear I decided to forget the iron altogether....these do not need a mordant as they are loaded with tannin, so make a lovely last minute dye bath...
the rains are here, and we are waiting for the mycelium to rise to the occasion...lol  and can't wait to go on a mushroom trip next somewhat sunny day.  now back to the wensleydale locks, next one is dyed with the semi sanguineas so is a lovely salmon colour.....oh nature's generosity never ceases to amaze...and that is without even freefalling from 27 miles up, just looking down seems to work just fine for me....lol

Saga of the Wensleydale Coat Vest

Here is the latest venture on the workbench...and it was a slog....long hours of felting, and then sewing, but well worth it, especially since it is for me.  I started being inspired anew by Terrie in Hong Kong, and photos of her lovely vests, so petite and doable...apparently I am
an amazon. Her vest looked so compact on the table, while mine took up a 4x8 piece of plywood to lay it out on....lol....and thinking I was making a short vest I ended up with a sleeveless coat which, in the end, was perfect....I do love surrendering to the materials and making them work for me.  This vest almost fell apart when I flipped it over to do the back, and I thought it was going to be a total loss....but perseverence furthers, and I kept at it, and it survived the saving.  I do run across this in many artistic endeavours...where I am working away happily, and oooooppppps something tragic appears to happen, and I think, oh, there it goes, no hope I have wrecked it, then breath, and think I will persevere, I hate this stage, but it seems inevitable so now it is almost part of the process for me.   I don't know if this happens to everyone, but it certainly happens to me every now and then, and when I do persevere, and "bite it" it ends up showing me valuable lessons in patience etc....so this vest too, took me through it, and it was a big hopelessness, as it was huge and weighed a ton....but it did pull through, and now I have a beautiful over vest for the winter months.  I trimmed out the armholes and the edges, and now just to make the right closure....
for the vivid details of the piece, I started with two layers of merino, then one layer of pelsul, and then the layer of the wensleydale curls...or the "golden fleece" as I call it, because I ordered it from england and it cost an enormous amount what with duty and shipping of 4 fleece. but well worth the money as I use it like crazy...love those long curls......
it will be awhile before I make another large project like this one....perhaps a yurt???? lol

Intervention is apparently needed...serious addiction

There is just no end to the possibilities except death.....that is the decision I have come to, so I am continuing to try everything that comes in my path, and apparently some things I seek out that aren't obviously in my path...lol...
Bundles of "botany and rust" have been opened and surprises have happened like ORANGE////////
the seeking of orange from eucs has evaded me, and now I can see a little goes a long way, but it has arrived at least...the larger leaves are from a type of dogwood tree and they are dynamite...a wonderful green ..so welcoming visually....now I must take some serious notes, as alchemy happens and I have a tendency to not follow it logically with notetaking and ability to duplicate...I tend to work very loosely, and don't generally try to do anything but surrender to the way of the materials....
so keeping track does not come naturally....so onward and upward, more bundling and question I have is, do the leaves have the colour making ability there all the time, or only when they are changing like in the fall, and what is that colouring...and why some have it and some don/t....some leaves leave great imprints by their non-colour ability which I love but would love to know ahead of time which ones these are...today gathered some phaeolus schwenitizi (dyer's polypore ) and will use it to colour the water I put the next set of bundles in....so many ideas so few hours in the day to have them all manifest....but a walk in the woods was soothing, inspiring, and refreshing....nearing of september and we have yet to have to light a fire...sweet...and we have been able to sit out on the deck til dark and watch the stars arrive just after the bats arrive....feel so blessed.

Feeling kelpish

Definitely feeling the kelp...took me quite awhile to get the kelp looking kelpish, but finally I liked the result, when I jumbled it on the workbench it almost looked like it washed ashore. These were for our fall fair event, theme of
the Salish Sea, which is where I live...and there truly is kelp, although not as much around the island as there was 38 years ago when I moved here.\
So a success with the kelp, but those orange euc prints are escaping me at every try...get great "botany and rust" prints but just can't pull that orange out of the eucs...so illusive to me...today I opened a few and there were definite outlines of the eucs and it was lovely but it wasn't orange..think I will try on felt instead of the silk which is mostly what I have been using, perhaps?

so to appease my disappointment I picked more indigo and will do more dyeing with it tomorrow....here is a pic of the indigo flower

Got the blues

I am delighted with all the blues I was able to get from my freshly harvested indigo....the plants did really well and have even begun to flower which is huge, as I will bring one pot into the house for seed next year.  It is polygonum tinctoria and it was generous with one dip..I was able to do about
l0 skeins of l00 gm each and still get vivid blues with one dip each....I will harvest more next week and do multi dips and see how dark I can get but loved the colour with the one dip so stopped there..
the vat was able to continue without any freshening through the whole process, and I followed Jenny Deans recipe in Wild Colour.  One of the improvements from the past was her suggestion to dip in clear water the same temp as the bath, right after pulling out of the bath and before oxygenating....this seems to help a lot with regularity in colour, as all the flocking indigo falls away and does not leave splotches of dark blue on the fibre....great tip there.
Fall is falling, starlings chattering, and indigo flowering and still no fire in the woodstove, which is saving a lot of wood....we are still able to have morning coffees outside, and we practically live on our deck in the warm weather so we are stalling going inside as long as possible, even moved the
hot barbeque over to our table after dinner and were able to sit out until 7:30 last night spinning and
staying warm....it was like a wee fire...a bit less aesthetic perhaps....lol

Bull Kelp

Some artist license, but spent the morning making kelp, and thinking "kelpish" thoughts...not too difficult, living on a small island in the Salish Sea...surrounded by kelp and other gifts...made some undulating kelp scarves and some cordage with bull kelp heads to wear, and now thinking installation thoughts...all very juicy and energetic, the kelp looks simple but is full of process, and took longer than the morning as I had several component parts made previously.  I love the small detail work, always have, and with felt it fits in so well.  Slow making, slow thinking...now to keep some notes before I forget completely what I did.  I now keep copious notes on the process, as I realize that there are too many processes in my head to keep track of and so the journal comes in handy.  I used to use it more as a sketch book, now it has become instructional and is very handy when doing something that I have incorporated before, I don't have to start at square one every time.  This is a good thing.
The first rains are here and it smells wonderful, that rain on parched earth smell and my freshly washed icelandic fleece, which was island grown, had to be saved from the rain.  I hardly recognized the sound until it was partially wetted whereupon I had to bring it indoors.  I am going to felt with it, and it is a beautiful fleece...so between experimenting with the icelandic locks, and harvesting my indigo plants...life is busy, not to mention a million plums drying and other food happening for winter storage. 
The indigo plants did very well this year, the ones in pots especially, and they are beginning to flower..so I will bring one in and collect seeds from it.  so excited...

OMG ess give me Patience!!!

FINALLY, one that I absolutely love....and now I am totally obsessed with more and better prints....so rewarding to finally achieve some density and clarity of the leaves, which were alluding me since now, the previous ones were lovely and subtle but I really wanted to have some big"Wow factor" and now I have that..let's see if I can achieve it again...of course, one of the key ingrediants seems to be "patience:" I am way tooo keen, and just like the kid who wants to break into the xmas presents early, I am chomping at the bit to open these right away....but patience truly is a virtue when it comes to this process...so I think the only way around it is to hide them from myself, and try to forget they are there, and to do a lot of them  also would be wise, instead of 2 0r 3 at a time...I hope you click on this photo as Mother Nature is so incredibly generous.....

still ruching thru August

Here are a few pics of the summer of ruching and the loving of felt and eco prints and all things fibery...I have been having a lot of fun with the eco printing...under the name "botany and rust" sort of like Joan Baez's song, :"diamonds and rust" but with some major differences...lol  The work is going very well this summer and everyone is quite keen on the process, and some have taken up the work so that there are a few of us doing this at the market...I have been felting into the prints and that has been a new thing for me. The ruching or "silk sandwiches" are doing well, and people love the look of the silk ruching and it is so appealing with all the added texture it gives to the work.  Here are some of the results ...Also I have been indigo dyeing and that is always exciting...my plants are ready in the garden, and next the woad, and weld plants....along with some carrot top dyeing, anything to get out of housework apparently.lol

"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...