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Group of campers with "flower" inspired felt pictures
Felting at Camp Judy Layne

Felting at Camp Judy Layne

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I recently told you about preparing for volunteering at Girl Scout camp. I have returned from Camp Judy Layne in Kentucky where I taught eco printing and four sessions of wet felting. It was a blast and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and introduced wet felting to camp.

Welcome Sign at the cabin on Lake Cumberland, KY USA

Before we went to camp, Debbie (right) invited us to her cabin on Lake Cumberland. When Susan (left), Dennis and I arrived there was a big sign on the cabin. This is an old joke having to do with plaques at camp where I signed my name really large (even on plaques I wasn’t supposed to be on).

Detail of welcome sign with "and Dennis, Susan & John"

Debbie who is not at all “arts and crafty” made this sign to make me laugh.

At Lake Cumberland in the boat with Debbie and Susan

We went on Curt’s (Debbie’s husband) boat and had a great time on a gorgeous day.

Dennis caught a fish on Lake Cumberland

Dennis (my husband) went fishing with Curt and John (Susan’s husband) and he was the only one who caught a fish. The stay at the cabin was very relaxing in preparation for the craziness of camp the following week.

Camp counselors and volunteers first session of Camp Judy Layne 2026

We all got camp shirts when we arrived and here is the staff and volunteers for the first session of camp on Sunday afternoon.

Montana, Snooz and Mac on Muu Muu Monday. No muu muus for us!

On Monday morning, staff and volunteers are encouraged to wear muu muus. Here we are on Moo Moo Monday!

Eco printed book covers laid out to dry.

After breakfast on Monday, I helped Poecat (the arts and crafts director) and we eco printed some book covers for small books that the campers were creating. I was concerned the eco printing wouldn’t be successful but I was happy with the prints. The campers learned how to make a folded 8 page book (from an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper) and then used waxed linen thread and the pamphlet stitch to attach their covers to the books.

Snooz, Mac and Montana at Crazy Hat dinner in the dining hall at Camp Judy Layne in Kentucky

Monday night is crazy hat dinner so here we are in the dining hall with our hats. Look closely to see my hat 😉 At camp we have camp names, mine was Montana, and then we had Mac and Snooz. Mac and Snooz were teaching a unit of girls to play guitar which was called Treble in the Trees.

The next day was crazy sock day. Mac got us matching  “friend” socks that hold hands. Ramblr is to the right of me. She stayed with us at the Air BNB cabin just outside of camp.

Then on to my four felting sessions, two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday. The first three groups were smaller but then the last group was 18-20 campers (10-11 years old).

 

I started them out with batts that I had made at home (packed into a large suitcase and brought on the plane) and then had them add the design on top.

I wanted them all to create different designs. The first group listened to music and created a piece inspired by the music. The next was inspired by “fauvist” landscapes as I had a bunch of crazy colors. The third group made portraits and the last group their favorite flower.

We had two hours for each session and the girls did a great job. Everyone ended up with a piece of felt that was holding together. Yay!

Group of campers with finished "inspired by music" felt pictures

Here’s the Treble in the Trees group with their creations.

Group of campers displaying "fauvist landscapes" felted pictures.

These are the CIT’s (counselors in training) with their landscapes.

 

Group of campers with "portrait" wet felted picture

This group was the theatre group who gave a show at the end about llamas.

Group of campers with "flower" inspired felt pictures

And here is the final group that created their favorite flower. Didn’t they all do a great job?

For Wednesday night, it was crazy hair dinner. I made these wool dreads for us to wear and we sang a ukulele rendition of Three Little Birds. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a video of our performance 🙁

Curt and Dennis at the lake house wearing wool dreads

And don’t the men rock the dreads? Curt and Dennis at the Lake Cumberland cabin.

Snooz and Mac presenting guitar plaque for first ever Treble in the Trees session.

Snooz and Mac presenting the signed guitar to hang on the dining hall with the first session of Treble in the Trees. Here’s a link to their performance:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1234964726359457

And a link to the drama performance:

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1002727975461627

If you want to see more photos of what’s happening at camp, you can view them here. You’ll have to scroll down to the first week photos (June 7-12) to see our session.

https://www.facebook.com/CampJudyLayne

Kat, the wonderful camp cook, holding her Cinnamon Roll of Excellence award.

Here is an award that we made for Kat, the camp cook. She works so hard to provide meals for all the campers, volunteers and staff. Billie was the cook for many years during the time I was a camper and staff member.

Moth on concrete floor at Camp Judy Layne

And to show that I was still paying attention to the beauty of nature, here’s a moth I photographed while we were setting up the music performance.

SCAMP tshirts for the OG's at Camp Judy Layne

A good time was had by all but we were a bit worn out. Here’s our new shirts for this year. Hopefully, I will be able to go back next summer!

 

The handsome Hector the white alpaca, fleece shaven, looks straight into the camera
My first foray into plant print screening

My first foray into plant print screening

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I just looked up the meaning of “foray” and I must say, I really didn’t plunge into this activity with any violence. Sorry if I mislead you. If anything, my incursion – is that a better word? – begun because of love.

Love, you ask? Yes, my undying love for Hector! My husband knows he is only second to Hector and is alright with it. You’d understand if you saw him. In fact, let me add a photo of that handsome chap for your enjoyment, and then you tell me if you’re not equally in love.

*drumroll, please*

The handsome Hector the white alpaca, fleece shaven, looks straight into the camera

Isn’t he the most handsomest chap ever? Wouldn’t you sign up to an eco printing workshop if you got to spend some time with this beautiful alpaca? That’s exactly what I did.

Allow me to backtrack just a bit: Hector lives in Birkhill House, and I’ve met up with his human Lara on a few yarn festivals to chat and peruse her wares. I bought a few batts from her, and by coincidence they were all from Hector. Coincidence… or fate? I decided it was fate and from then on decided this was the love of my life and I’d do anything to one day meet the grower of the only alpaca fibre I’ve ever genuinely loved (the others I’ve spun/wore feel itchy!)

Fast forward to the day I bought a full Hector blanket to wash, process and spin. No, fast forward a bit more, to the day Birkhill decided to debut their eco printing workshop. I was so keen to finally meet him! I could thank Hector for the amazing yarns I’ve gotten out of his fibre so far.

First things first, I needed to actually participate in the workshop. Fine, I’ll make that terrible sacrifice. In I go to the working shed and play with plants, merino fabric and wallpaper base.

Plants used for eco dyeing on plastic trays
Plants ready to be chosen and laid out
A strip of fabric with plants on top in an "aesthetic" way
My flimsy efforts. Knowing what I know now, I’d definitely have filled the negative space with more plant material.

Like I said, this was my first time playing with eco printing. I had no idea what I was doing. I was well instructed by Sunshine, our tutor! Love her name, very fitting to her personality.

After we had our plants properly squished between the layer of paper and fabric, and tied up, it was time to add them to the dye bath for a bit. Intermission to look at Birkhill’s plant garden.

Wait, did I mention this workshop was a two-parter? After we looked at the plant garden, there was more fun to be had in the form of solar dyeing. I confess I had a little knee-jerk chuckle at the notion of sunshine dyeing anything in Scotland, but then I remembered I get more sunshine here than I ever did in London and shut up.

It was time to peruse the vast sample of plant dyes available for us to play with. Although I’m familiar with acid dyes, it being my bread and butter and all, I’m very ignorant of natural dyes – so I appreciated the labels for me to read and see what colours they’d yield.

We were given two silk and silk-and-merino micro skeins to add to our jars (mine used to house caviar, how fancy) and were given full freedom to choose which colours and how many to add. I chose three in the red-purple family. After arriving home I placed it by the window and waited.

At the time of writing my micro skeins are almost finished soaking up the dyes and are looking properly red and purple. Unfortunately, also at the time of writing, I have a cat on my lap and we all know it’s illegal to move them, so you’ll just have to imagine how lovely it’s looking at the moment.

Now comes the best part of my visit: alpacas! Have you ever booped an alpaca’s nose? They have no cartilage there and it’s like booping a velvety marshmallow; it feels magic. The next best thing? Feeding an alpaca.

Leonor feeds Hector the alpaca through the fence and has a very goofy smile whilst doing so
Thank you Lara for the photo! My happiness is very real.

I heart Hector!

After all this, our eco printing was ready to unravel and dry.

And that was my half day at the farm with eco printing and alpacas. I hope you enjoyed reading it, thanks for letting me share my love of Hector. I’ll leave you with some Hector skeins I’ve spun so far, all with different techniques. My favourite so far is definitely the semi-woollen using rolags, the yarn is so fluffy.

From left to right: spun semi-worsted from batt, 2-ply; spun semi-worsted from batt, chain-plied; spun semi-woollen from rolags, 2-ply; spun semi-woollen from textured batt turned into rolags, 2-ply (my favourite).

Four skeins of alpaca yarn, hand spun from Hector
I hope you like my cat socks, I left them in for your enjoyment.

Thanks for reading!

6 students and tutor holding up natural dyed scarves
Dyeing to Eat

Dyeing to Eat

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I thought the title might be a bit more catchy than ‘Dye and Eat’.  But that is just what I did this week.

Let me retrace my steps a little.  A few weeks ago I attended the AGM of our guild Feltmakers Ireland (https://feltmakersireland.com/).  Our Keynote speaker was a lady named Malú Colorún.  Malú who is originally from Mexico is the co-founder of Fibreshed in Ireland.  The Fibershed movement originated many years ago in California and now has affiliates worldwide. It is a not for profit movement which promotes a virtuous circle in clothing production.  I feel the easiest way to describe this is to show you a screen shot of a table on the main website:

Chart showing Fibreshed mission

If you would like to find out more about the organisation, you might like to visit the main website at https://fibershed.org/mission-vision/.  You will find a directory of all affiliates under one of the drop down menus, there may be one in your area.

Malú also runs a natural dyeing business.  Here is a link to her website: https://talu.earth/the-team.   She collaborates with a number of knitwear designers based in Ireland and also provides a bespoke dyeing service to businesses and individuals.  Along with this, she runs regular workshops in natural dyeing and when she mentioned this at our AGM, I just knew I had to attend.  That was a few weeks ago  and it turned into one fun evening, so much fun and great learning that I want to share it with you.

There were six students, including my eldest son, an engineer and software designer who in his spare time is apprenticing as a Beekeeper.  It makes my heart swell to see how in tune with nature he is. 

The session was a busy 3 hours and Malú had scoured and mordanted the materials and started extracting the dyes before we arrived to speed up time the process.    Our first lesson was immersion dyeing and we were each given a skein of wool and a linen triangular scarf to dye.  We had two dye pots to choose from; avocado which yielded a beautiful pink shade and sage which had a lovely yellow colour.  The group was lovely and bonded very quickly, Malú is a super facilitator.  Once we had our materials on the heat, Malú sat us down and explained the processes of scouring, mordanting and extracting dyes.  We learnt about different fibre composition and how they need to be treated differently to get the best out of the dye.  Here are some photos from the first part of the night.

  • Pots, plant and equipment all set up for the evening's workshop
    Our tools and materials for the evening
  • Teacher immersing all of our fabric and fibre in water in preparation for the dye pots
    Malú had already scoured and mordanted all the fabric and skeins before the workshop in readiness for the dyeing processes
  • dropping the prepared skeins into the sage dye pot
    dropping the prepared skeins into the sage dye pot
  • Students preparing the fabric and fibre for the pot the pot on the right was sage and produced yellow while the bottom one was dye from avocado stones and peels
    Our two dye pots for the evening; top – yellow from sage, bottom pink from avodado
  • close up of the tutor providing instruction
    Here Malu is talking about the organic waste that we will be using during the evening’s dyeing session
  • Tutor, Malú providing instructions
    Malú is a great teacher and had us all enthralled
  • close of up oak gall balls. these are high in tannins
    Oak gall balls. High in tannins. You can see the hole where the little was crawled out



Then we got hands on experience of eco dyeing.  Malú produced a variety of leaves and skins
for us to work with and we quickly became engrossed in laying out our patterns,
and rolling tying up the fabric. Soon they were all added to a pot and left to
steam away while we got to learn our next technique.



  • Fabric strips being prepared for ecoprinting
    Preparing for eco printing
  • Eco printing layout on cotton featuring nettle, bramble, sage, onion skins pomegranate and other leaves
    This was my layout for the ecoprint sample. It wasn’t very successful but that’s ok
  • fresh dye materials placed on the table including carrot tops, nettles brambles, sage, onion skins pomegranate
    Malú collected an array of leaves and other materials for us to sample during the evening. We used these in the Eco printing and the bundle dyeing
  • Student's rolled and bound pack ready for the steamer, sitting on the table
    Here is my one!
  • 6 ecoprint packs placed in a colander ready for steaming
    Here are our bound and rolled eco packs ready to be steamed

There was great excitement when we removed our pieces from the immersion dye.  Quite a few of us had opted to tie dye our materials so it was great to see the results.  Then Malú gave us the option of trying a third technique with our materials.  We could choose to bundle dye them if we liked.  Of course, everyone wanted to have a go!  So we used the same leaves and skins we had used in the eco printing.  I started with my scarf.  I wanted to try the onion skins as I had heard they can produce great results.  To these I added pomegranate and a few leaves, and wrapped it up on itself.  I used much the same with the skein of wool.  Again, they were popped in the steamer.

  • Tutor is using a colander to remove the fibre and fabric from the yellow dye bath
    Malú is removing everything from the dye bath now that we have gotten colour. This gave us time to bundle dye our pieces
  • Dye bath on the stove. The dye is yellow from extracting the dye from sage leaves
    Here’s one of the dye baths hard at work. Ben wanted to get a graduated colour so you can see his is immersed in both dye baths
  • Student's scarf dyed yellow with sage leaves being prepared for bundle dyeing with carrot tops
    John’s scarf is looking good with all the carrot tops.
  • Student's layout, white skein, red onion skins and sage leaves
    Ben agreed that his layout looked like a gorgeous pizza about to hit the oven!
  • Skein that has been tie dyed with sage producing a yellow mottled effect, now being prepared for bundle dyeing
    Recording my layout of organic material before I bundle it up

At that point Erik from Fondita Mestiza arrived with lots of yummy Mexican food for the group. The title of our workshop was Flavour, Stories and Colour – An exploration of dye, textiles and food.   The evening was a collaboration between Erik and Malú.  What a delightful concept!  Erik provided the beautiful food while Malú used the scraps and made it into dye for our workshop. We sat around telling stories and Erik provided some background to the origins of ingredients and dishes served. I should have taken more photos of the food but I didn’t want to tempt you away from the post and have you snacking!

  • Preparing the table for our yummy meal
  • Yummy mexican food!

Malú showed us her book of experiments.  It was filled with a colourful array of natural dyes. I took a number of photos of the journal to show you what can be achieved from natural dyes. This is Malú’s personal journey and I thought it only fair to block out her notes as she was so generous to share them with the group. I am sure you will all understand this. So I hope you will enjoy the amazing colours she has achieved in her research. This is only the tip of the iceberg of what was contained within the journal.

  • Colourful samples from different natural dyes and fabrics
    Beautiful colours extracted from natural dyes on natural fibres
  • Beautiful browns shown on a variety of natural fibres
    More gorgeous coloured samples
  • Mustard, brown and beige dyes on natural fibres and fabrics
    More gorgeous colours extracted from natural dyes by Malú
  • Yellows browns and pinks - wool skein samples
    Beautiful results achieved with Galway wool, Ireland’s only remaining native wool.
  • Extract from Malú's dyeing experiment journal. Reds yellows and pinks ion natural fabric and wool skein
    A sneak peak through Malú’s experiment book

We then unfolded all of our samples.  My scarf and skein worked a lot better than my eco printing sample.  I will definitely try the eco printing again as I have access to eucalyptus leaves which I understand practically guarantee success.

  • Student's scarf being unrolled vegetable matter still intact
    Here I am starting to unroll my scarf. Lots of dye stuff needs to be taken off
  • Students opening their dye bundles which are placed on the table
    Excitement mounting as we opened our bundles
  • Student's scarf laid on table immersion dyed pink from avocado then overdyed yellow and red from onion skins and pomegranate skin
    Myscarf which was immersion dyed pink from avocado then overdyed yellow and red from onion skins and pomegranate skin
  • Student holding up their naturally dyed scarf main colour yellow with over dye of onion skins and leaves
    Karina’s scarf
  • student's scarf using yellow and red materials placed flat on table
    Chloe’s finished scarf made using immersion and bundling techniques
  • Triangle scarf dyed using immersion and bundle techniques yellow from sage dye bath and red from onion skins
    John holding up his finished scarf
  • 6 students and tutor holding up natural dyed scarves
    Happy campers with our natural dyed scarves

It was a memorable and enjoyable evening which left us all biting at the bit to get the pots out. But before I take my leave, I will show you John’s and my dried pieces.

  • Eco print fail. The leaves left very little mark on this fabric
    My ‘not great’ eco print’ I think this one is for over dyeing!
  • Eco print sample in the centre of fabric. Concentration was on onion skins (red and yellow)
    John focussed his eco printing on the centre of the fabric. He focussed on onion skins and got really clear results
  • Skein that has been tie dyed with sage producing a yellow mottled effect, now being prepared for bundle dyeing
    Recording my layout of organic material before I bundle it up
  • Skein tie dyed in avocado dye, pink, then bundle dyed with a variety of organic materials
    Here is my skein. The photo does not do the colour justice as it is a lot richer than this.
  • Salmon pink skein of wool which has been dyed with avocado peel and stones
    John’s skein. He immersed his in the avocado dye bath but decided again bundle dyeing it. Love the colour!
  • Triangular linen scarf light yellow with dye from the various materials used on the night
    John immersed his scarf in the sage (yellow) dye then used a variety of the organic materials when bundle dyeing it
  • Sage dyed scarf on model
    Here is John’s scarf dried and ironed on one of my mannequins
  • Scarf flattened out. Tie dyed in the avocado bath then bundle dyed with lots of organic materials
    My scarf again, flattened out. I love it!
  • Scarf tie dyed in avocado dyebath then bundle dyed with a variety of organic material
    Here is my scarf. The camera has not done it justice as the colours are a lot richer in reality. It would look amazing on silk!
Eco-printing

Eco-printing

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A guest post by Antje Ream

Creating this post for the forum I’m being very loose with the term fibre – my excuse is that both paper and plants are fibrous.

A few months ago I attended a great eco-printing workshop by Jane Hare of Pippin Textiles with fellow members of our local textile group. It was a full day of very organised activity with each person having much to show at the end. In addition to what we ourselves had gathered from our gardens, we were greeted with a large pile of interesting plant material.

We were given clear instructions and then let loose laying out our plant designs on paper, cotton sheeting, wool blanket and Tyvek….even kitchen paper didn’t escape! We tried a vinegar mordant and boiling our rolled papers and fabric, then it was paper, fabric and Tyvek with an iron mordant using the steaming method before steaming our rolls of alum mordanted paper bundles.

Thankfully it was summer and we could open all the doors otherwise pegs might have been required for our delicate noses.

Needless to say most of us were very impatient to open our parcels and see the results of our minimal efforts combined with mother nature’s magic. We were all delighted with our results.

We each had this amount to show at the end of the day. The Tyvek pieces are the 4 light squares on the left hand side in the left photo. The dark long piece is the wool mordanted with iron.

 

Following any workshop comes the dilemma….What do I do with what I’ve produced? In August our group holds an exhibition of members’ work undertaken throughout the year. This event always galvanises my thoughts and with it fast approaching it prompted me into action.

A while ago I received a bouquet of flowers that came with a large almost cuboid box – far too good to throw out….I’m sure I’m not alone with hoarding potentially useful objects…taa daa! I used the Tyvek pieces which were almost square (13 x 13 cm) and machine embroidered them to some linen fabric, cut to size to wrap around the box.

I used a different embroidery stitch around each square

I then added some gold gutta to provide some highlights.

One of the results of our workshop was a set of ‘book’ printed pieces of thick paper/card stock with the front of the leaves on one piece and the back of the leaves on another. I trimmed these totally square (10 x 10cm) and backed each with very fine/thin fabric dot glued to the surface, just to hold until I had done the stitching. This allowed me to machine stitch onto the paper without ending up with lots of pieces, or holes, all torn at the perforations. I stitched each to highlight the details of the leaf (and even red cabbage) prints.

these are the pieces before stitching

On their own they didn’t look much (or more accurately – ‘what do I do with these!’) so I then decided to book bind them together.

A little blurred but you might just see how I joined the pages together
The front and back of the book

I mentioned kitchen paper above – this was only used to ‘protect’ some of our plant designs but I found it gave quite a delicate appearance, so I acrylic wax varnished it….warning – don’t then let it dry on a hard surface without laying cling film down first, otherwise hours of scraping can be enjoyed! I then used some of this paper to cover a tall Pringles tin (as the kitchen paper was translucent I covered the tin with plain white copy paper first), then added another layer of the varnish. My friend was delighted with her very simple gift.

Very similar to the tin, this is a work in progress on a white lamp shade it looks lovely when the light is on

Whilst at a car boot I purchased some unusual pictures – stitched suedette fabric on panels of wood. Playing with yet more of my stitched squares I added them to the panels.

the small panel is 20 x 20 cm

In the exhibition there were many lovely creations using our eco-printed products including a scarf, a cushion made using the wool and a box made from the Tyvek pieces.

The Tyvek box is on the front right – Oh, I’ve just seen the Pringles tin in the background!

Finally here are some pieces that are a favourite of mine done on wall lining paper, which I have coated with acrylic wax varnish each measuring 100 x 15 cm. They are two sided, the paler reverse side shows delicate squares – where the Tyvek pieces were laid and then all wrapped up tightly together. I like both sides and as yet haven’t come up with a way to show them off to advantage….any ideas much appreciated.

Since this very inspiring workshop and as a result of my book being in the exhibition I have been asked to do a workshop on bookbinding in January. I have a few examples of fun bindings done years ago so I will have to brush up on the techniques. I only hope that I can be as organised as Jane and enable my ‘students’ to produce lots of interesting samples.

Writing this guest post has been quite a feat and I owe a HUGE debt of thanks to the ever-so-patient Ruth who across thousands of miles (and an ocean) has not only held my hand but carried my entire bulk through what we thought would be a relatively easy process. I hope that she will continue to offer me the opportunity to post now that we have solved the problems.

Today is a special day and the bells are ringing out for Christmas so I wish everyone….

Joy and a Happy, Healthy and Creative 2019

….and will leave with a photo of the card I received from Pat Moore from Canada in the holiday card exchange….Thank you Pat it is lovely.
Finishing an Eco Piece

Finishing an Eco Piece

Comments 16 comments

Last year Cathy (Luvswool) and I did some eco dyeing.  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/11/03/eco-printing/

They pieces have been hanging around and I was going through them again and decided I liked the heavy cotton one in particular.  It was time to finish it.  Of course, it wasn’t that easy to decide what to do.  At first I thought I’d stitch the flowers and leaves, but I’m not that great at embroidery. So it sat for awhile again.

I really liked the straggly edges. Besides, if I turned the edges over I’d lose some of the nice design. Here is part of the design.  You can see at the top the ragged edge.  The two long sides were not that way, but I spent some time in front of the TV pulling out strands so they would all look the same.

I chose some embroidery threads that reflected the colors of the imprints, but subtle enough not to fight the design.

I did three rows of stitching around the whole piece.

I had decided it would be a wall hanging so I attached a small dowel with loops on the back.

The next question is where would I hang it so it would really look good.  I have a lot of dark walls and some light gold.  It’s hard to see the gold here, but there was some contrast.

My kitchen is teal and generally sunny.

The living room is a deep bronze color.

The family room is deep moss.

We’ve had a lot of dark days here, so I know the photos aren’t the best.

What do you think?

 

Just a quick addition.  This past weekend I met with my siblings in Madison, WI for lunch.  My sister Car brought me a fleece from one of the twin boys born last year – Little Will.  Here’s a quick peek at the open bag which was quite heavy.

While we were having lunch Car’s Granddaughter Madison received pics of two new twins that were just born.  A little boy at 8lbs 12 oz and a girl at 9lbs 6 oz born to ewe Mary.

What a great way to celebrate the get together!

 

Out of the box Part 3

Out of the box Part 3

Comments 8 comments

This is the 3rd and final set of pictures from this exhibit. http://mvtm.ca/?exhibition=colour-unboxed   the first is here:  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/01/18/colour-unboxed-by-out-of-the-box/ and the second here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/01/26/out-of-the-box-part-2/ Again I apologise for some of the odd angles as it was very crowded with people enjoying the exhibit. In the last picture you may find it hard to see but the is a very long weaving draped across  the ceiling.

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A Peek at Terri Simon’s Eco Printing Class with Nicola Brown

A Peek at Terri Simon’s Eco Printing Class with Nicola Brown

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Thanks to Terri Simon aka Meterrilee on the forum for sharing her eco printing experience today.

Today, I would like to share my experience with eco-dyeing. Most, if not all, of our blog hosts and many followers have experience with eco-dyeing, but it was a first for me and I loved it! I decided to take an online class with Nicola Brown from Ireland. She is a wonderful teacher—very thorough in describing the process in an online format, including several videos to illustrate further. She was available daily for six weeks to comment, problem solve, and encourage us as we journeyed through that week’s lesson. Like other online classes, there are “chatroom” areas to post pictures and ask questions, and to comment on one another’s creations. The online environment is available for six months and all of the lessons were downloadable in PDF format. Additionally, Nicola created a Facebook page for us to continue communication. Thanks, Nicola, for a great online experience!

As a dyeing newbie, I had to assemble equipment. At a nearby thrift store, I found an aluminum fish cooker with all kinds of inserts for steaming, an iron stake, and a length of copper pipe which I cut into pieces to fit into the fish cooker. We had an outdoor fire source…a propane tank and hook-up for deep frying a turkey. It worked perfectly on my covered back porch (this is Southern Oregon’s rainy season). Here’s my equipment:

terri-pans

All for $20. Not bad!

I ordered a bunch of silk, silk/wool blend, and 100% wool scarves from Dharma Trading, which had a good selection and reasonable prices. I also made pieces of felt to experiment with. For vegetation, I used rose leaves, loose tea, red and brown onion skins, strawberry and blackberry leaves, Japanese cut leaf maple and eucalyptus, donated to me by a friend who has several trees. The rest came from my garden (and kitchen.) There are lots of different “brews” for obtaining the prints. Some involve rust water, others vinegar water and other things thrown into the cooking pot (different metals, plants…). And of course, there are multiple ways to prepare the fabric for dyeing, none of which use harsh chemicals (the harshest chemical used is vinegar). I really like this aspect of eco dyeing…it’s all very natural. I am amazed that the beauty of a leaf can be imprinted substantively on fabric, right down to the intricate veining.

 

 

Here are some photos of my experiments.pic-2

This turned out sort of dark and muddy. These are Japanese maple leaves. The scarf actually looks good with the right outfit, but the prints are very subtle and not what you want when you are just starting out (at least not what I wanted!).

These are pieces of handmade felt, with eucalyptus (the skinny and bright orange leaves) and strawberry leaves. The purplish looking circles are cut from red onion skins.

pic-3

Next is a blend of wool and silk. You can really see the details of the onion skins on this fabric.

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The scarf below is 100% silk. The print is much softer looking. I like the tie lines produced when wrapping the bundle.

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Finally, I made some felt placemats and while they are interesting, I am not a fan of the muddy yellowish background. I found out it was operator error for not keeping the heat up high enough for a long enough time. I had to go out for a bit and turned off the flame under the pot, letting the placemats sit for about an hour until I got home to untie them. My mistake! Had I kept the heat up for the full five hours, I would have produced a much clearer print, such as the example pieces I have included in this picture. But, they are still pretty in a muted way.

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I highly recommend Nicola’s classes. She is an excellent teacher, very thorough and organized and she has a delightful wit as well.  You can find more information on Nicola and her classes here:   http://www.nicolabrown.ie/

 

 

Eco Printing

Eco Printing

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Cathy  (Luvswool) and I had an Eco Printing day this summer.  I mordanted my fabrics before hand and picked some flowers and leaves from my garden and froze them to bring.

Elizabeth had kindly sent Cathy some Smokebush and Japanese Maple leaves.  Cathy generously shared some with me.  Thanks Elizabeth and Cathy!

I had brought some coreopsis, day lilies, lobelia, verbena, petunias and leaves from my neighbors tree.  I have no idea what kind, but they were red, not maple, and a little wavy.  Other than a few faint marks none of my stuff did much with the exception of the coreopsis.

Cathy also had some coreopsis, a little bigger in flower size, plum, geranium and rose leaves and pansy flowers.

Of course, time was at a premium and we were anxious to get started and forgot to take pics with the leaves and flowers before wrapping.  My bad.

My first experience with eco printing last year was a disaster.  So, I had a lot to learn and fortunately Cathy had everything ready when I got there.  So we got right to work laying out, dipping leaves in iron water and wrapping. We used copper pipes, bamboo mat and binders and clips.

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We had two pots going, one plain and one with  sweet gum seed water.  I had brought the seeds from California.

The light plum fabric below was Egyptian cotton from an old bed sheet. It’s too tightly woven to felt, but I wanted to try printing on it.  We also added a piece of handmade paper on the inside to print on both sides.20160719_130528

While still wet:

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Now dry:

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Here are both sides of the paper:

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I had brought a variety of fabrics — silk habotai, cotton broadcloth, cotton voile and cotton kona cloth.  This was the kona cloth while still wet.

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Here are both sides and a couple of closeups:

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After drying you can clearly see the string marks and the bamboo mat marks.

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20161031_150421The silk piece came out nicely. Here it is wet:

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Then dry:

20161031_145914 20161031_145939 20161031_145950 20161031_150108I think the Japanese Maple, Smokebush, rose leaves, coreopsis flowers and leaves, plum leaves and geranium and pansies made the nicest prints.

The broadcloth didn’t fare as well except for the very ends.

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The cotton voile:

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Thanks Cathy for your guidance!  I’m pleased with the results.

Well, we’ve managed to hang on to summer for one more post.  Next time I hope to remember to take before pictures.  Now I have to figure out what to do with all this.  Any suggestions?