Hi all, although I haven’t been doing much felting myself I have been teaching others to do it. I ran my Nunofelt scarf class again this last weekend. I had five lovely ladies at the Ottawa Valley Weavers’ and Spinners’ Guild classroom.
The first part of the class is talking about all the fibres. Students are amazed at all the kinds of silk. I usually bring hankies, tops, throwsters waste and recycled sari silk along will wool BFL locks and sparkly nylon. They get to pick their hand dyed scarf blanks and then spend at least 15 min trying to decide what embellishments they want to use. It’s lots of fun watching and helping with colour and texture choices.
Silk hankies
Silk Tops
Dyed Silk Throwsster’s waste
sari waste
Sparkly nylon
It is so hard to pick.
Then it is on to lay out the wool. Once this starts I put the silk blanks away so no one is tempted to change their mind halfway through the layout. I keep all the wool and embellishments out until they wet everything.
Everyone enjoys using the ball browser sprayers to get everything wet.
In this group, they all stayed together during the different stages of felting. Often they become staggered; someone wants to be first done and another will be very relaxed and go slower. In the end, they always finish and it’s interesting to see the different styles of learning and doing the same thing.
rubbing
rubbing
rolling
rolling
I didn’t get any pictures of the gently squishing and tossing to full but here they are finished.
nuno scarf
nuo scarf
nuno scarf
nuno scarf
nuno scarf group
nuno scarf group
All in all a great class with happy students.
The only odd thing that happened was one lady had brought her own wool, marked merino and she was sure it wasn’t superwash. She added my embellishments. One of her colours did not stick to the scarf anywhere. My first thought was it was superwash. However, it did seem to felt and grab the silk embellishments on top of it. Nowhere she had used the copper coloured wool stuck to the silk backing. It was attached by other colours surrounding it so it’s all one piece but I have no idea what was/is going on with the wool, any ideas?
It’s the time of year when thoughts turn to warm woolly sweaters( jumpers). So, where do they get all that wonderful wool in amazing colours? Why for colourful sheep of course. Dyed in the wool as it were. And where do you get those? Well, you make them of course. They can really spruce up a manger scene for Christmas or you can add them to the scenery of your model railroad or add a pin and wear them.
I had 8 lovely ladies to make some cute little sheep. There should have been 9 but one couldn’t make it so her sister who was there paid her materials fee and took some supplies to her so she could make a sheep at home.
After this point, once the students arrive, I forget to take pictures. We start with the legs. I show them how to make them with needle felting. It is long and tedious to make them dense enough to hold the sheep up. Then I show them how to make wet felted snakes to cut up for legs. You can see a plastic bag on the table it has the sheep samples and all the snakes I made so they could have legs and move on the the rest of the sheep. they make bodies, heads, and ears and then they needle felt them all together. they usually look a little wonky at this point and everyone has a good laugh at them and worries there sheep will not look right.
Most of them look like they are on stilts at this point. It is better to start that way and then do some hoof trimming at the end, to get the length you want.
Next is the best part, giving them their colourful ( or natural) coats. we used Bluefaced Leicester curls. they are small nice curls.
As they have all their wool, their personalities emerge.
Everyone seems happy, I will need to find out if I had any comments on the evaluation forms. Fingers crossed there are no complaints. When you teach with our guild we have the student fill out an anonymous evaluation. It helps to head off problems before they really start and sometimes you get good ideas for your next class. Students pop them into an envelope and it’s sealed. Someone else opens it and has a look and you get the feedback later.
This is my last post for the year so I hope you all have a
A couple of weeks ago I did a hat class in a small town near me, Spencerville. It is a great little gallery with some workshop space. https://www.spencerstreetmuse.ca/
I had 4 students including the owner. These are the samples I brought to show some possibilities. Sorry for the bad picture, I had to cut it out of one of the other pictures. The 3 ladies all picked the same style of hat, the black and blue one in the middle.
And the gentleman wanted a wizard’s hat for part of a costume. Nothing too tall so we were good for space and time.
You know the drill first you lay out all the wool.
Then you wet it and rub it with Tupperware juice jug lids on top of the bubble wrap. Two of them are getting great patterns in their bubbles. You can see the shape of the wizard hat bottom right.
Then there is the rolling.
Next is the scariest part for most new people…..the cutting.
Then we moved on to more rolling and then some scrunching and a little tossing to get them down to the right size. I do have some basic hat blocks but I make people try them on to see if they fit like they want them to. Then we can fine-tune them before the final shaping. At this point, the gentleman had to leave to make it to work on time so I gave him some information and told him to contact me if he needed help. So no more pictures of his hat.
And the finished hats, they all turned out really well. And one of the ladies bout the black and blue sample hat so I will have to make another.
Sorry for the sort of quick post with not much info but our Guild Sale and Exhibition is this weekend and I am in charge( silly people letting that happen). We will be on our second and last day when you read this.
A couple of Sundays ago I had a Slipper Workshop. I had 4 ladies that had not felted before. There were no crazy toes in this group.
As usual, I was too busy talking to take all the pictures I should. So we start with everyone finishing the wool layout for their slippers. I have them do both sides dry, and then put them together. 2 were doing a reg slipper and 2 the ear template. You can see them on the front 2 tables.
After they had everything together and wet they added some embellishments.
Then there was rubbing(no picture). I am definitely too busy talking during that, to help distract them so it doesn’t seem so long. And then rolling, Usually by this time I have them all chatting.
Then it’s time to cut them open and see how they look. The faces say these don’t look right, it’s never going to work, and they will never shrink enough to fit.  We change how they are folded
And then …..Oh no, not more rolling
once they have mostly shrunk it’s time to make them fit, just the way they want them to. Some like them a little big, some like them to fit like a glove. the glove people have to do some fulling on their own personal slipper blocks, better known as their feet.
I managed to make a short video of one of the ladies fulling her slippers on her feet. Not only that, I uploaded it to YouTube and managed to embed it here. Thank you Leonor for the help on that front. At least I think it was Leonor, I can’t find the email anymore. Edit: It turns out it was Terry that helped me, Sorry Terry. Thank you for the help.
And lastly, 2 ladies shared their finished slippers.
Everyone seemed to have a great time and be happy with their slippers, You can’t ask for better than that.
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:
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.
Our tools and materials for the evening
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
Our two dye pots for the evening; top – yellow from sage, bottom pink from avodado
Here Malu is talking about the organic waste that we will be using during the evening’s dyeing session
Malú is a great teacher and had us all enthralled
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.
Preparing for eco printing
This was my layout for the ecoprint sample. It wasn’t very successful but that’s ok
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
Here is my one!
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.
Malú is removing everything from the dye bath now that we have gotten colour. This gave us time to bundle dye our pieces
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
John’s scarf is looking good with all the carrot tops.
Ben agreed that his layout looked like a gorgeous pizza about to hit the oven!
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.
Beautiful colours extracted from natural dyes on natural fibres
More gorgeous coloured samples
More gorgeous colours extracted from natural dyes by Malú
Beautiful results achieved with Galway wool, Ireland’s only remaining native wool.
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.
Here I am starting to unroll my scarf. Lots of dye stuff needs to be taken off
Excitement mounting as we opened our bundles
Myscarf which was immersion dyed pink from avocado then overdyed yellow and red from onion skins and pomegranate skin
Karina’s scarf
Chloe’s finished scarf made using immersion and bundling techniques
John holding up his finished scarf
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.
My ‘not great’ eco print’ I think this one is for over dyeing!
John focussed his eco printing on the centre of the fabric. He focussed on onion skins and got really clear results
Recording my layout of organic material before I bundle it up
Here is my skein. The photo does not do the colour justice as it is a lot richer than this.
John’s skein. He immersed his in the avocado dye bath but decided again bundle dyeing it. Love the colour!
John immersed his scarf in the sage (yellow) dye then used a variety of the organic materials when bundle dyeing it
Here is John’s scarf dried and ironed on one of my mannequins
My scarf again, flattened out. I love it!
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!
April is now gone and May will hopefully bring more sun and more flowers.
I started the month with some felt stars. It was a fun little project and might work for a fast free workshop. Maybe at a guild social. You can read about how I made them here
Next was an eyeglasses holder for beside my bed. It was an interesting project with some strange wool. Here it is hanging up beside my bed. I didn’t realise how dusty the bookcase was until I took a picture. Then I had to dust and take it again. The things I do for our followers. LOL
I taught 2 workshops this month, Nunofelt Scarf and Felt Birdhouse/Feeder workshop. We had a lot of fun. Here are the ladies with their finished scarves. Sorry, I forgot to get a group shot.
And the finished Birdhouse/feeders.
After teaching I decided to treat myself to a Workshop. I signed up for Helene’s Felt Spiral Workshop. I really enjoyed making my spiral. I learned a lot along the way. It is wonderful to see how different people do things. It would be wonderful if we all lived close enough to get together regularly.
I couldn’t get the movie to work so here is a still.
With April finished I have another completed page for my slow stitch collection. I decided to include a little needle felting this time. I included some flowers but also the solar eclipse we had here, a cloud and rain because we have had a lot of April showers and my purple umbrella to keep me dry. I really do have a purple umbrella. I added the Autism Awareness infinity symbol because it is autism awareness month. Then I was left with an empty spot at the bottom and I couldn’t figure out what to put there. I did a special days in April search and on the last day of the month, I was reminded of the first day of the month and added the fake glasses nose and moustache for April Fools.
and lastly, because it is spring this last week we have started having lambs.
And these are my current bottle babies. Sven( thanks to Jan for the name) who no one would claim. He is doing a good imitation of a Valies Black Nose with his black nose and knees. And Henna whose mother hates her( probably because she is really good at yelling at the top of her lungs for no reason) Once they are both drinking well and down one feeding per day ( they are on 5 times a day right now) they will go live in a lambing pen until they are a little bigger then they can join a group.
In my last post I talked about a 4 week dyeing course that I attended a while ago at Sharon Wells studio https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ . The first week was dedicated to acid dyeing and we have fantastic results from it. Week 2 was all about natural dyeing, our colours were more subtle and totally restful. If you missed part 1 you can catch it at adventures-in-colour-part-1
I talk about the third and fourth sessions in this blog. I hope you enjoy!
Week 3:
This week’s session was all about the production of pigment. Sharon started off by showing us some ‘tools of the trade’; the glass mulling tool and tempered glass which, along with an old coffee grinder, she uses to grind elements into powder. We learnt about the difference between dye (dissolves in water) and pigment (disperses in water and so needs a carrier). Then we discussed types of pigment; earth and animal both of which can be ground into powder and animal, which needs a totally different process. We mixed various powers and produced test sheets using the pigments as both oil and watercolour paints. We also tried artificial pigments. It was very exciting. Here is a quick look at some of the day.
All the processes for making earth pigments
Linseed, used as the medium for oils
The water colour medium
A new student dropped in, but had other things on her mind
Ground down sea shells. There is still some grit in the mix so it was not fine enough
preparing the sea shells to accept the medium
Artificial pigments containing mica, they made delicious colours
The mulling tool is used for fine grinding and mixing the pigment with the medium.
The real excitement happened when we started making botanical pigments. Sharon boiled up some onion skins and in no time we had a beautiful golden brown coloured liquid which she shared out among the group. She then dissolved aluminium sulphite (alum) and soda crystals in two containers. We added the alum to our onion skin liquid and then watched in fascination as the soda crystals reacted to the liquid when we poured it in. The pigment separated from the liquid and we were, in the end, left with clear liquid. We then strained our pigment and dried it. Here are a few photos to give you an idea of the fun we had:
The onion skins were left to simmer for about an hour
The strained onion skin dye bath
measuring the aluminium sulphate before dissolving it
The aluminium Sulphate and soda crystals (in the peanut butter tub). The onion skin dye bath is in the background
The chemical reaction once the alum and soda crystals get going
Separation of the onion skin pigment.
The pigment attaches to the alum once the soda crystals are added to the mix.
The onion skin pigment drying at home
The final pigment was filtered through a coffee filter and left to dry
The bottle contains bluebell pigment which was prepared from the flowers in the tutor’s garden
Olive leaf pigment produced a lovely colour
Four botanical pigments: 1. Marigold 2. ‘wild Eve’ Rose 3. Olive leaf 4. bluebell
preparing the sea shells to accept the medium
The whole process had us all enthralled and ready to try it at home!
Week 4:
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The final class in the dyeing series focussed on Procion Dyes . The class was led by Anne Jefferies, and Irish Textile artist and tutor. We used cold water dyes this time and worked with plant based fibre including different weights and textures of cotton, linen and silk. We also experimented dyeing a variety of different threads. Anne explained the full process and provided excellent notes so there was very little need to write which was good because our hands were very busy. Anne prepared the various solutions and we got to work using pure primary colours. We divided our samples into three lots and tied each piece of fabric into whatever shape we fancied then we got dyeing. We started with the lightest colour, yellow and dyed our first batch. Then we removed and rinsed these and retied a number of them, ones we wanted to overdye and popped these into the the dye bath to which some red dye had been added. We then added our second batch of undyed samples and watched the magic occur. We then removed all of these and set up a fresh dye bath for the blue. Here are some of the photos taken on the day:
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Preparing the fabrics
The prepared Procion dyes mixed and ready for use
Stirring the yellow dye into the fabric
Stirring in the yellow dye – starting with the lightest colour
Work in progress on a messy table. Good reason to keep everything covered!
Dye testing a variety of threads
The thread experiment with dye added
Adding more red dye to the bath
Next experiment: red has been added to the mix and the fabrics have been retied
A two person job! stirring the bath and adding the fibre.
Some nice surprises when we opened our little parcels
A colourful table!
More samples ready for dyeing
Here is a slideshow of my dried samples. I can’t decide which is my favourite! Having said that, I am showing them all as some were disasters but still deserve an airing.
Definitely one of my favourites. Reminds me of strobe lighting!
I tied these with some string (but you guessed that already)!
Not a great result. If I stare at it long enough I might see something!
This is a bigger piece of light cotton. The pattern is a little more uniform. I might use it for nuno. Decision yet to be finalised
The pattern caught nicely in places but not in others
Subtle? Interesting? not sure
Sunburst circles a little too subtle I think!
Not a great result but it is one of the experiments so it is being included
These look like clouds, lined up in rows!
The longer I stare, the more patterns I see with this
Interesting subtle finish on this one.
The colours are not as faded in the sample. Love all the squares.
This one has a lot going on. Spot the paperclip!
Perhaps not one of the best samples but it’s good to see this too!
I find this quite attractive. I wish I could remember how I achieved the lines and squares!
Lots going on here. The colours are richer than the photo
A real sunburst, pity the piece was cut from the bottom corner!
One of my favourites! reminds me of bamboo cane
A heavy cotton lace again a tiny piece. I might add it to some nuno sometime!
I like the diagonal lines in this sample
This is a small piece of silk. I wish I had two meters as it would make a fabulous top!
I loved these classes. They were a mix of great fun, camaraderie and fantastic learning. They have demystified some of the processes around dyeing and I now feel confident in trying them myself. Thank you Sharon https://www.sharonwellsart.com/ for facilitating this wonderful experience!
Sorry if this is popping up for you for the second time. I had to remove it last time because I posted on the wrong day. It seems I can’t read a calendar.
Last Saturday I taught a felted hat class. I had 6 students doing a variety of styles. I was sure I took more pictures but they are not on my camera so I must be doing something wrong. Thankfully, some of my students had pictures I could use. Thanks to all of you.
Let’s start with Dani’s hat. She wanted a cloche-style hat.
Then it was almost right but she wanted to flatten and shrink the crown. So, using her head ( it is your best hat block) we worked with the rubbing tool to get the hat to where she wanted it. She did do some more rubbing herself.
This is the finished hat. You can see she used a different colour inside.
Next is Leanard. Leonard wanted a Robin Hood hat. this is a hat that perches on top of your head rather than fitting down around your head.
Here is the layout
And the finished hat. I say finished, but Leonard is going to work on shrinking the length more.
Next is Christine. She wanted an oversized beret.
The finished hat. I think she was happy with it. What do you think? LOL
now we have Luna who wanted a witch hat. She picked a great deep purple for it.
This hat was a big layout so it took a little longer from start to finish and we ran out of time. Luna took it home for the final shrinkage and fulling of the brim to stiffen it.
Lastly, we have the 2 I don’t seem to have taken any progress picture of.
Barb’s Cloche hat. She used some silk hankies to decorate her hat they won’t show up well until it’s dry.
And Susan’s folded brim hat. The turquoise was such a good colour for her.
All in all, it was a really fun class with great results.
Ions ago, I purchased all the bits and pieces that I needed for acid dyeing. I never lost my enthusiasm for it (in principle!). I listened to my textile friends waxing lyrical about dyeing. If I am to be perfectly honest here, I lacked both the knowledge and the confidence to try it. So when I came across a dyeing course which was being run over the four Tuesdays in November, well, I didn’t have to think twice, I immediately booked it. The workshops were run by an Irish Textile Artist and all round nice person, Sharon Wells (https://www.sharonwellsart.com/). Sharon provided all the equipment and fibres but mentioned that we were free to bring along any fibres we wished to experiment with over the course of the workshop and of course our limitless curiosity!
Week 1:
During week 1 we worked with Jacquard Acid Dyes. Once Sharon explained the basics of what would and would not work with these dyes, she set us to work, initially teaching us how to secure hanks for the dye pot. We were each given our own pot to work with. Then we got down to the fun work of choosing dyes, testing fibres and dyeing.
Our first experiment was with solid colour. We each threw a variety of fibres into our respective pots and got to work. It was great fun watching as the colours developed. I had chosen orange for my first test and it was just so exciting watching the different hues develop. I have prepared short slideshows of the results of each of the experiments over the four weeks. Details of the fibres are included in the captions.
Kerry Mountain sheep – I carded the dyed sample which was a mistake as it blended all the lovely colours
Silk yarn which I bought in the Silk weaving shop on Granville Island Vancouver
Chunky woollen yarn, I don’t know the breed but I love the range of colour!
Locks again I love the way the dye has taken here
Three plant fibres. Not sure which is which but we have nettle, viscose and rose
This was given to me to tie my samples and I thought I would dye a sample. There’s definitely some wool in the yarn
Next, to some of my fellow participants horror, we saw Sharon cut into an old shrunk felted jumper. We were each given squares and shown how to randomly sprinkle the dye powder onto the surface. This time we used a minimum of 3 colours on the sample. Once prepared it was popped into the dye pot and other fibres were thrown in not to waste the dye that came off the sample. Here are my results.
Front view A cut off a felted jumper. We sprinkled various colours of dye powder on this before it went in the pot
Back view of the sample
Various locks: I love the way the colours took
Kerry mountain sheep breed: this time I did not card it so we can see it unblended!
Yarn: variety unknown
The chunky wool yarn which I threw into a different part of the pot
By this stage we were all getting really excited. This was like alchemy or as one of us said, witchcraft (which is possibly a more accurate description as we all gathered round one of the cauldrons (yes there was one, the rest were pots)) and saw the reactions of the different coloured dyes we were adding to the pot full of fibres. We were learning (among other things) how to control where the differed colour dye permeated the fibres and how the colours mixed throughout the process. Here’s what I produced.
Industrial prefelt I tie dyed it for a bit of fun. Gorgeous results!
Kerry mountain sheep. More exciting colours
Locks from the same pot
Front view: Silk fibre. I can’t help thinking about Hubble when I see this photo!
Back view of the silk fibre
Nettle: same pot
Front view: Merino 19 micron roving (tops). More Hubble vibes coming through here
Back view: Merino roving (tops)
Week 2:
It is amazing how disciplines have their own languages. Mordants; fugitive colours; substantive dyes – Sharon quickly demystified all the terminology – a real confidence boost – then she produced a vat of fibres which she had been seeping in the mordant for some days. She also gave us a variety of pots which we could work from. Then came the fun ‘show and tell’. Sharon had been growing and collecting various flowers and plants over the summer months. She dried these especially for the session so we each got one to work with. We had dried containers of marigolds, rose petals, sunflower petals, sunflower heads, and ground up nettle. I got the nettle to try. One of the participants opted for fresh eucalyptus. We set pulling the dye out of the plants, straining it and then to dyeing our fibres. Here’s our progress and the results:
A huge vat full of mordanted fibre Aluminium sulphate steeped for a few days in preparation for the course
The ground nettle which was dried over the summer
Dried roses, the dye produced a lovely perfume
Rose petals produced a really exciting pink colour dye
the lovely colour extracted from the sunflower heads
Here is the sunflower petal dye the final results were vibrant
The straining stage for one of the dyes (sorry can’t remember which one!)
Loki oversaw all work and every now and again figured his new friends should stop for play
Everyone’s finished work laid out in the sun to dry
Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
The marigold petals produced a delicate creamy result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
The gorgeous results from the dye extracted from the sunflower petals
Lovely shades of yellow from the Sunflower heads
The pink was lost during rinsing which was a bit disappointing
The fresh eucalyptus produced a delicate green/yellow result which differed in shade depending on the fibre used
Then as a further experiment we took dye from a couple of the dye baths and added different components to see how the dye reacted. We used tin, chrome copper and vinegar. The results were surprising.
Top is the rose dye middle L/R vinegar, tin, chrome, copper Bottom is the Sunflower petals
I was disappointed with the colour of the nettles which were a murky colour. Also the powder from the nettles made the fibre really grainy and unattractive. I thought I would see if I could use fresh nettles from the garden. Sharon had offered me some mordant to bring home for this experiment and like an idiot I forgot it. So, based on an earlier comment she had made during the class I decided to try using aluminium foil as a mordant. I steeped the fibre overnight and made up the dye which I strained. Then I dyed the fibre. The result is a beautiful soft green which I am very pleased with. I am not sure that the mordant took as only time will tell if the fibre loses its colour but it did not happen when I rinsed it. The grains from the original nettle powder were still scattered throughout the wool fibre so I took my carders to the Kerry sheep fibre. Although I have yet to be convinced that natural dye is an avenue I want to pursue further I really enjoyed the day and the learning.
A sample of the nettle dye from the fresh nettles
Overdyeing with the fresh nettle dye. I left it to cool in the dye pot overnight to give it the best chance
Result from dyeing with the dried nettles. Not very exciting
Final result with the fresh nettles lovely shades of green. photo taken before dyeing
The final result for the fresh nettle dye. I love the variety of tints!
I have so much to share from these four weeks that I will save weeks 3 and 4 for my next blog post. A million thanks to Sharon for facilitating such an interesting set of Tuesdays last November.
