Wednesday, February 2, 2011

last flowers of summer

Finally - I'm getting to some of my outstanding ecodye projects.




A friend gave me some spent dry pohutukawa flowers and twigs and a container of the fallen scarlet threads. I know these leave wonderful prints and little wiggly lines in maroon so I've been rolling adult tshirts with them.









The weld is all out of the garden and in the copper dyepot - bubbling away with bundles tied around old metal pipes, folded in on themselves, wrapped in leaves inside and out.




I've planned for the sizes 14 - 18 t shirts to be primarily NZ plant prints - but then I rediscovered geraniums and onion skins ( which I haven't used in ages ). That combination has the potential to be such a soft end of season colourway, I couldn't resist.




Thank goodness the hammock I dry them in is well out of sight - at the bottom of the garden in my workshop. It has a wonderful wind flow (well -it's a converted woodshed with a farmgate to keep the stock out ) - so I can just leave the bundles swinging there for a week, before I need to even take a sneaky peek....










and when I unwrap them I'll have turnips, the Manukau Harbour and the smoke stack from the Glenbrook steel mill right outside the gate.

































































































3 comments:

  1. Oh for Grandma's old copper. I see that it is one of your "tools of the trade" now. You know how dad loves those coppers!

    I took photos of the Pohutakawa flowering in NZ when we were there and they are exquisite. On Tiritiri Matangi, the ground was carpeted with them and the birds were fat and lazy amongst the greenery. Kiwipainter.com

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  2. Lovely work.....l wish l had a hammock to put my bundles in..so l can't see them and be tempted to open as soon as they are out of the pot! How long do you keep your bundles wrapped before you are tempted to open them?
    http://tryingtocreatearteverything.blogspot.com
    and
    http://chocolatelifeandjazz.blogspot.com
    xx lynda xx

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  3. Hi Lynda - as long as I can...although sometimes it's an educated guess especially if I've done some decent salt water soaking before wrapping and I think I can get away with it. I try to make several bundles at a time so I always have something I might possibly allow myself to open as a treat :)

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