more dyeing

I added more leaves to the scarf: in the middle griselina and fire spike and along the outside hydreanga leaves. I put some impatiens flowers to it as well, but didn't expect much from it.

For a test I put eucalyptus leaves between felt layers, put the 2 bundles on my home made steam basket, added more eucalyptus leaves to lots of water and let it boil for about 45 minutes and then cool down

2 days later it looked like this

I started to unroll the bundle, the leaves were still in

and in the end  I am quite disappointed with the result

there is hardly any print visible but the strings are very clear

still wet

not much to see when wet

after drying and ironing

A hint of the eucalyptus leaves is still to see and the griselina made light pink prints. Genereally it has a pleasant greyish colour.
I wonder what is the reason why I do not get any nice orange prints from the eucalyptus. Is it the water ? We are on town water which is pretty yak in Kerikeri with lots of clorine. I use a carbon waterfilter to get rid of the clorine taste, but it doesn't take out all. Maybe I should collect rainwater for dyeing? I would not want to use our pond water, it is quite polluted with all the septic tanks around.
I am using an aluminium pot, maybe this is not good? Do the leaves have to be fresh and green?
I have to experiment more !

And the result for the old t-shirt was not very exciting either

It was boild with eucalyptus leaves which makes it  look like dyed with tea

some eco dyeing

I brought from a recent dog walk some gum tree leaves home

so I decided to do some eco dyeing experiments

I used eucalyptus (bottom) and griselina  (the yellow bigger ones) and some leaves of a weed I don't know the name of

arranged them on half of the dry silk scarf

folded the rest over

and made a bundle

I made some sort of tripod from an old leftover wire from the aviary

put water with some vinegar in the pot and tried to close the pot very firmly with foil and an old lid.
I let it steam for about an hour.
After cooling down a bit I had a look to the bundle

and I was a bit disappointed because there was hardly any colour to see.

So I steamed it for another hour but still there was not much change. So in the end I put the bundle into the hot water after turning off the power and let it cool over night.

In the morning I had this result

eucalyptus is clearly visible but not very dark

not much to see from the griselina, just some hints of pink
and nothing from the unknown weed

It is still not very colourful but at least some prints are visible.

I put the used eucalyptus leaves back into the water and added some more leaves and also some vinegar and put in an old stained white t-shirt

This is now slowly simmering and I will let it cool over night.

In the meantime the silk scarf is dry and shows the prints a little bit better

I think I will put some more leaves on another time to add some more pattern. First I need to read India's books another time to find out what I could do differently to achieve better colour.

Inspired by Hundertwasser

This year's theme for the Creative Fibre Northland Exhibition was 'Hundertwasser inspiring Ewe'.
I'd never got round to do something for the exhibition because I was much too busy with other things.
But recently we had our 'Felters of the North' meeting and by seeing some of the work others had done I suddenly found some inspiration to do a little piece there. I brought only a small range of wool but managed to do a nice little piece 'Hundertwasser style'. It wasn't done after a painting, just by some memories in my head.
Finally I finished it the last days with some stitching and now it is drying/resting after pressing with the steam iron.

This is the back side. I used for all the stitching black thread in the bobbin.

And this is the front side.
I always used a matching thread for the stitching, but for the
 house I used black and gold for the rain drops.

Detail

Detail - a bit blurry, just to show how 3-dimensional it is.

I think I will either mount it on a canvas board, if I find the right size, or maybe put it on a strong cardboard.
I wonder if I should use some more 'glitz' for the rain drops, might try out something.

Working on a felted landscape

I have started working on a felted landscape. I used brown crossbred wool for the base, then laid on top random dyed gotland wool.

I needle felted everything with my new little machine

which I bought in Germany. I was thinking long about if I should buy it because it is pretty expensive. In the end I did and I am quite happy about that. It is good when felting bigger pieces and one can also shape well with it.

Today I put details on the base

Now I have to make my mind up, if I do some more stitching/beading. I am also tempted to slightly wet felt it to give it a more smooth finish

more than 2 month

have gone since my last post. We were away for 3 month and the posting didn't work well with the tablet, I couldn't upload any photos.
We had a good time over there, met friends and family, saw floodings and had weeks of heat wave with temperatures between 33 and 38 degrees. As usual we had a holiday trip too, this time to 'Luneburger Heath' in the north of Germany. It was a fairly long drive to get there but we had a great time with lots of nature.

We have been to swamps

saw heather and junipers

and visited 2 Hundertwasser buildings

We arrived home 2 weeks ago after a slight dramatic flight with a medical emergency for Alex. Luckily he is fine now and startet working in the garden. Though I am still listening in the night when I wake up if he is still breathing.....