It feels like years since I've eco printed anything. There are several reasons I now have time and energy to get back into my craft.
Somewhere on the net I saw a post showing the results of dyeing wool with new tansy leaves and adding iron. I have a tansy plant now in my emerging dye garden and it had enough young leaves to raid. Also I rather favour my old rusted steel pipe as a base to wrap on - so that sorted that combination.
India Flint, my teacher from many years ago, mentioned water lily leaves print well - our fish pond has an over abundance of water lily pads - so that was that sorted.
A year or so ago I bought a slubbed silk wedding dress from the local Salvation Army family store and it had literally yards of beautiful fabric. Textured silk is always a great favourite of mine, so I unpicked the garment cautiously ( and it was beautifully sewn and hand finished ) and found I have three panels I can use. I am only using one of the smaller widths for this dye bath.
My final joy was to haul my wonderful old copper pot out of storage, fire up the BBQ gas hob which is supported by a stout piece of forked driftwood and let the magic happen.
As an aside, I raked all the kowhai flowers as they fell this season and dumped them in my BIG copper pot with rainwater. That has been brewing away for quite some time and is now a dark and sultry brew. So in went the tiny pieces of wedding dress that were the shoulder straps and they will sit underwater without heat until I remember to take them out......I don't know what colour I'll get - but a mystery is always good fun.
The last little pieces I tied tightly in a random fold and shibori style and plunged into the pink solar dye that's been quietly doing its thing on the deck table in the warm summer sun. Again a mystery - it smells divine as the rose petals I used are from my new red climber Double Fragrance. I'll just have to wait and see.....
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