nemo ignorat

circling on

stardust changed. somehow the sun part didn't feel right. so I added some more cloth weaving and some more circles/planets. it's growing - changing (and too large for the small empty space in my flat, which is why it moved into the garden for the photo)

don't turn around

One of the few places in my flat where I can lay out a cloth to have a look and experiment is in the living room cum office where the desks are. To try out some combinations, I layed out stardust (in between dark and light) and just turned my back to get the camera. When I turned around again, I saw this:

Albeit very decorative it was not what I had in mind.

This was more informative for my purpose (though not as cute, I admit):

Between books, fabrics, cloth and dogs, we seem to have developed a kind of organic living style. Our senior dog uses the book piles in front of the sofa to make the ascend easier for his old bones and Ramses, more a whole zoo in the body of a dog (I still think, he is a cat in camouflage), well, he tests every fabric and every fibre that is laying around for comfort. That's just the way it is - and it's a good way.

ombre blues and then some

well, nothing new from my dye studio, still working on the blues. Or better, stitching the blues. Which is a whole new field to learn. But, I had some really interesting and exhilerating results with my now 4 weeks old 1-2-3-vat.

Before re-heating it, I added a teaspoon of fructose to it. And lo and behold, it dyed a really good blue.

See for yourself (though the lightning wasn't good and although the damask looks really great, it doesn't like to be photographed):

 

and some trys at ombre dyeing:

the technique is not really good, but you can see how well the blue builds up in the middle part

here's a detail of the long cloth

and now another dragonfly - which looks a bit more like a flying fish, methinks ;o)

the body is better but the wings are fumbled. Well, we dye and learn ;o)

(all fabrics were dry but not yet ironed)

fat dragonfly shibori

Glennis showed us how to stitch resist a dragonfly in our indigo workshop. She asked us to do our own, because 'every dragonfly is different'

uhm, yes, every dragonfly is different and mine is definitely overweight or not a dragonfly at all.

Conclusion: technique works fine but I do have to work on my basic understanding of dragonfly anatomy ;o)

Since I had some thread left in the needle and some space on the piece of fabric, I free-hand stitched a spiral.

which worked a bit better.

more blue

Somehow I don't have any idea for an interesting headline anymore. Most things I do at the moment have to do with dyeing blue :o) So, here I am presenting some more indigo dyed fabrics.

I fell in love with this kind of dyeing. The above pieces are planned for some bracelets. But I think I will dye a larger piece for a belt. There is a kind of skandinavian folkware belt-pattern I really like and it would be perfect for this kind of resist dyeing.

another resist dyeing for braclets.

and some bookmarks. Vintage handspun and handwoven linen with resists and gradiation dyeing.

and some leave bookmarks

And now I'm off stitching for arimatsu shibori ;o)

Doodle Sunday