Browsed by
Tag: mulberry silk

Playing with Natural Dyes Part 2

Playing with Natural Dyes Part 2

Comments 23 comments

I’ve been trying out different natural dyes using similar materials.  This time I tried alkanet roots and logwood with and without iron.

Here are the alkanet roots before preparation which took two days to get ready to use.

20160629_115247

The logwood also had to be prepared ahead of time.

20160629_115247_edited-1

Again, I used mordanted corriedale and merino roving, mulberry silk, wool yarn, silk habotai and silk gauze as I did in my previous post  https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2016/06/28/playing-with-natural-dyes-part-1/

According to some of the charts I saw on the colors to expect from the alkanet roots, it could be anything from gray to deep purple.  I had also read it was possible for blues or even red.  As you can see from the pot, there was a light purple tinge to the water. The dye liquor was definitely dark purple but then it was diluted with the water.

aklanet only pot

 

The result was a silver gray.  For all the experiments I leave the pot to cool overnight to get the most color.  This was a lot less than i expected, but its a pretty color.

alkanet

The next step was to add iron to the pot with another set of materials.

alkanet with iron wet alkanet with iron

The top picture is wet, the bottom is dry.  So, I now have silver and gold colors.

Next was the logwood. From all the pictures I’d seen and roving Cathy had dyed in Arkansas I thought I would get some type of purple.  It looked pale in the pot.

logwood pot

So, I was surprised when it dried and it was more of a taupe color. But surprises are half the fun!  Then I added iron and did another batch.

logwood side by side logwood iron top wo bottom

The darker ones on the bottom are with the iron and its more of a charcoal color.

Again, these are all experiments and results can vary depending on water, temperature, etc.  While I had a little different expectations, I’m not unhappy with the results.  I can always overdye.

What have your experiences with natural dyeing been?

 

 

Workshop with Vilte Kazlauskaite in Slovenia

Workshop with Vilte Kazlauskaite in Slovenia

Comments 13 comments

Our guest artist/author today is Nada Vukadinovic also know as Halay on the Felting and Fiber Forum.  She has generously offered to share her workshop experience learning a Fiber Inlay Technique.

A few weeks ago I attended a workshop in Maribor, Slovenia, given by internationally renowned textile artist and felter, Vilte Kazlauskaite from Lithuania. Her work is fabulous. You can see her creations here: http://vilte.tumblr.com/

She held three workshops, but I was able to attend only one. It was called Fiber Inlay Technique. Quite intriguing, I had no clue what this could mean and I was very excited to learn about it.  I attended only one afternoon workshop. On  the previous day attendants learned something about  fabric manipulation in nuno felt, and the last day was devoted to the creation of a vest.

We were working with two types of silk: ponge and chiffon and were expected to create a piece of work, either a shawl or something similar, a flat piece anyway. I decided to make a square piece which I will probably use for a cushion.

First we were asked to draw a pattern on a piece of paper in the form of a mosaic that we would like to appear on the finished work, e.g. a bird, or something abstract.

I decided to draw something simple.

photo3

We used different sorts of fiber (mulberry silk, viscose, bamboo, and flax.)

photo6

photo16

When we were finished laying out fabric and fibers we began rolling and rolling. When we noticed that the wool has penetrated through all the layers of silk, we started kneading the piece and then rolled the project without the rod. The shrinkage percent was from 40-50%.

This is what we got in the end:

 

photo14 photo15

Unfortunately, we were working only with white silk and some blue and white fibers, but I imagine it would be interesting to play with different colours, especially different colour fibers.  The fiber I personally used for the first time was flax and  fell in love with it.   I am already planning  to buy some and dye it.

 

photo8

To put fiber inlay technique in a nutshell, it means lots of silk and different fibers. Here are some more photos showing Vilte’s work: beautiful textures.

photo1

photo10photo12 photo13

And here is some yummy hand dyed silk.

 

photo9

Vilte uses natural dyes only.

It was nice to learn something new. Here in Slovenia we don’t have many opportunities for learning new felting techniques, but the situation seems to be improving. We are planning to invite another master from Ukraine and are getting quite excited about it.

Thank you Nada for sharing this exciting technique with us!

A Different Easter Basket

A Different Easter Basket

Comments 25 comments

We were recently in California for our Granddaughter Lisa’s first birthday.  I had intended to make an Easter basket before we left but it didn’t happen.  So, when I returned home I decided to make more of a bowl using the colors from her party.

20160313_120239

I made a batt using a light turquoise with touches of pink, purple and blue.

20160320_154113 Then I embellished the bowl with pink and gold mohair yarn and mulberry silk. (She likes bling.)

I used a resist thinking I could stretch it out on a ball to smooth, but it was a bit too small for the balls I had.  I tried blowing up a punch ball, but that didn’t work either.

So, I ended up stuffing it with plastic bags and it turned out nicely shaped.

20160321_123854 20160321_123859

I was pleased with it when it was dry.

20160322_113050 20160322_113003

Here is a closeup.

20160322_113011

Lisa’s favorite snack is what her parents call “puffs.”  Those nuggets that melt in the   babies mouth.  So, I stocked up, stuffed some in plastic eggs and sent the rest in the package along with a stuffed bunny.

20160322_113655When she gets a little older, I’ll make her a proper basket.

The basket arrived in time, I’m just a little late posting. She did enjoy her puffs and playing with the bunny and eggs.