Into pot

Well I am back into the dyeing pots am trying to work through a lot of dried shrooms and lichens ..the two below are omphalotus olivascens which I tried to get a purple but ended up with lovely silvers, and the paxillus atromentosus which gave me lovely greenish brassy colour. all the colours  I loved butnot necessarily   what I was expecting.. Will try the omphalotus again with ph lower and simmering and see if purple will show itself....I love the mystery of the shroom dyeing and very seldom am disappointed with whatever I get, and the lovely thing about natural dyeing is they all go so beautifully with each other 

and I also am. Weaving some rugs again, out of 100 percent wool, the weft being four plyed  homespun...they are thick and lush and am keeping one for myself for a change...

finished this mushroom dyed blanket which was the end of twenty blankets, it was hard to cut off the end of the dummy warp, but I had to to make room for the rugs...lol

spring has definitely sprung here on the west coast of Canada and I find myself looking for mushrooms already. The Rufus hummers have returned and seedlings are coming up naturally in the garden...what a wonderful if not worrisome mild winter.

More Forest Floor

The 

hThis is the "Forest Floor" rock  I am working on these days, trying to capture the look of a branch with moss almost covering it, in this case an arbutus branch embedded in french knots appearing like moss....well the closest I can get to moss 

And this time, left some rock exposed and did an edge of turkey tails, trametes versicolor, which was a challenge and fun, although too large perhaps....and a small western amythest purple lacaria....this rock is not completed but it's the largest one yet...I keep adding more to the collection asI study more mosses etc... 

Need more rocks with more texture and leave more exposed...that is my next one...

the top and bottom picture , because I can't figure out how to place them properly on this blog, are of my new blanket I just took off the loom. Not complete or fulled yet, but will post when done....this is of mushroom dyed warp, dyed with hydnellum arantiacum with many different modifiers to give a variation of shades...love all of them and pleased how it turned out with just a white warp, because I have a 48 inch loom and this is a queen size blanket, it is a double weave....made for a queen!

And I still have more room on my dummy warp for another blanket......guess i will be dyeing more warp this week..I collected these hydnellum a few years ago and have lots dried and frozen to play with, they give me subtle colours because I think my ratio of wool to mushrooms was too low, will up that and see if I can get some stronger colours for the next one, although I do love the lightnss of this one...

Rocky forest floor

These are my latest obsession.....wet felted natural dyed fleece on a rock with my feeble attempt at imiitating the forest floor with embroidery stitching...so much pleasure!!!!! I was feeling under the weather and this was a warm and fuzzy haven of colour, texture and learning new stitches thatI thought might look like moss, lichen and sporophyyles...loved making the little cladonia and playing with new ideas....learned so many new stitches and felt is so wonderful and forgiving to stitch into....see more of these in my future...weather has been mild and January short days are here...always thinking I will get so many projects done in the spring...

Conglomeration of pleasure

Busy busy, xmas markets and just plain fun...cat cave, too small but a treat to see finished, now either get a kitten or make a pod from it...ten layers of half breed, lvely firm tons of arm work....but love the texture...small hedgehogs, there I was finding myself making a hedgehog, I was surprised, but then made twelve more, too delightful...and finally teaching myself to needlefelt....mushrooms gnomes and mice...thanks to tutorial from sarafina....could become addictive...now on to the scond fir of the season...

Stoned again....sandstoned that is

A continuation of sandstone felts...this piece , except for the last photo, was a scarflette i finished today....loved the tones and the touch of blue was good....so much to learn and such fun learning ..especially with a new obsession..you can take all your past and apply to a new surface...the trick for me, is remembering it all, more notes , more detail designs and this blog helps as it is like a memory journal of what I have done, what has gone before;). When you do a lot of things that all entail a lot of processing the details get pretty thick and notes help keep things straight...so tomorrow I tryanother  technique, and feel a wall piece coming on which would almost be full circle from 25 years ago when i started felting, then I did a lot of wall pieces, quite large ones....it is always a shock to see them from time to time at friends places...i would like to take them and felt them all anew...lol not that they weren't solid but what I thought was well felted then is not how I see well felted now...;)

Poor replica ...

O

No chance of ever replicating what nature presents but so much fun trying....skies cleared and sandstone appeared on my workbench...living on a small island with incredibly beautiful sandstone beaches, I am amazed it took me so long to try and make a few sandstone wraps, but today was the day, and once I started it was hard to stop, exhaustion was the only thing that made me stop....great to be felting again and to be obsessed with fibre and colour...of course the rest of my life was on hold, but c'est le vie....carpe diem I say...can see I will be travelling on this road for awhile, trying to perfect the stoney look...on felt that is! Lol

As the starlings flock

The prints 

The signs of fall are in the air, starlings flocking and morning dew has just begun, although the 

Days have been sunny and unusually warm....I have been building stock, well actually having a lot of fun,  but building stock sounds so much more work oriented, and what i have been doing definitely feels like fun....here are some of my moments in the recent past, between harvesting and drying food.

..

More with a difference.....

 LI

Eucalyptus and smoke bush...revisited...oh how I love that combo.....

Abundance...dance

WL...working on this felted stictched piece for an "art in the garden"show....have several pieces to put a small assemblage together...then of course there was eco printing! And I was really p,eased with the results....having even printed ferns...and of course, walnut, eucs, and some geranium...busy days of summer...

Um...

New best friend.....

Loving how the plants are printing this time of year....this first one is like a japanese water colour, and the eucatus are so generous ...the third pic is my new best friend , i am in love with every part of the cotinus plant it is particularly beautiful to me and is in full bush right now...still looking for something to give me lines in the printing but am thrilled with what i am getting, even did a cotton tee and although paler print,, came out quite distinct...the air is abuzz with bees and creative energy, i am exhausting myself each day and loving it....

On a roll or ten!!,

Sweet eucalyptus.....such a generous plant, and oak leaves....who knew? Experimenting with different plants and different mordants and having lots of fun, must document, which isn't my favourite thing, i get lost in the doing and work spontaneously with whatever surfaces....exciting for me but not very consistent....but i am really open to whatever happens, perhaps too much...

Spring plants, I thought were not noted for there giving up of colour, usually I hear fall plants, freshly fallen. But these seem to be working and I have more experiments on the workbench, plus some logwood and madder chips soaking....

Continuing to try and make housework and cooking as joyful as my workbench, but not too successful,yet ;))

Zip it up.....

Welll zippers seem to have found there way onto my workbench through the fabulous wooly fabulous, who has been working with zippers for eons and is a master at it....so another obsession which fits in with the felting venue and is small, portable, and fun and is helping me get over my glue blockage.... Small brooches with brass zippers and wet celted pieces....am having soooo much fun doing these...

Snakes and ladders

More from Mother

The tie lines with cochineal and plants...snakes and ladders revisited...can't seem to get enough of those euc buds. Love the look on top of geranium...last a simply simple euc leaf...so clear and generous...happy holidays all...

Spring frenzy

My life is full of processes, colour, pollen, hummingbirds, eucalyptus, and fibers....so many things Ilove doing ,hard to sit still...carpe diem!!,

Abundance!!!

this is my past week's adventure, with a little gardening and seedling transplanting on the side....dyed with madder and cochineal , the top photo, finished a spring iris coloured blanket, with brushed mohair and mushroom dyed warp, cooking up some madder warp for the next blanket and dyeing some lamb's wool that is old but still looks good....local lamb which is about fifteen years old, also dyed some in a vat with lac/madder combo, came out a lavender pink shade...so spring is definitely showing itself and the greens and pink blossoms are breathtaking.now for more dyeing and some eco printing.  New plants to try for eco printing....and more to be learnt....must keep notes, apparently I have no goal of consistency in my work, working on a "wing and a prayer" seems ot be my natural course, of course, I do jot down notes in my journal but don't seem to read them when I am working,!! Lol. It does make for a lot of variety and endless lessons.....

Tea cozies

getting cozy with tea cozies and workbench frenzies

Here are my latest obsession....very cool tea cozies., lined with silk, trimmed out with melton cloth hand sewn, wet felted merino wool...have six, and apparently have few more calling...in between times mice are happening, which began with Bamboo the cat, finding a piece of felt cordage and going crazy, so long tailed mice are a big hit and are a pretty cute edition to the table!!lol. I imagine a small 

Herd of mice occupying my market space this summer..the other photo is of my workbench, havng just given a workshop on resists inclusions, and flowers with wemsleydale fleece...all did amazing work and I always learn a ton, had a visiting felter from Prince rupert, Jenny, who did amazing felts, and was great with colour, all of them were experienced felters who did great work, making it so easy to have a class with...we covered tons of different techniques, and even managed to squeeze in lunch....so spring has definitely sprung here, daffodils blooming, herring have spawned, rufus hummers are rlacing the anna's at the feeder, and I am creative like crazy....all signs of spring....bring it on!!!!!