A busy time right now…. Come to think of it, most times are busy!
Anyway, getting ready for my first appearance at the 10th Annual Fashion Show and Boutique of the Textile At Alliance (TAA – associated with the Cleveland Art Museum). I will have work in the fashion show as well as a booth in the boutique. The hardest part right now is sewing tags on all the silk scarves I’ve dyed this past year!
Here are some glimpses of some of the garments (repurposed and some rearranged) that will be available for new owners:
Just in case you were wondering what to do with yourself either the weekend of July 20-21 or the weekend of July 27-28, I have the perfect solution!
I am holding a Natural Dyeing on Cloth and Paper workshop at my place! We will spend the first day of each weekend making bundles of cloth/clothing and plant bits as well as paper bundles (I know which papers work best!) to do contact dyeing in pots of iron and copper. There will also be the chance to do some rust dyeing and compost dyeing in baggies that you can take home to finish.
This is being offered under the auspices of the the Cincinnati Book Arts Society (CBAS) and is a very inexpensive way to enjoy your weekend.
Interested? Let me know at judy @ judydominic . com (remove the spaces before sending!) and I’ll send you all the particulars.
I did a bit of bundling yesterday and had a pot with iron and a pot with copper simmering.
Working towards a couple shows in the fall, I pulled out some Goodwill specials along with some pieces that I had mudded over the weekend (and which washed out almost completely; I now know the limits of the retention agent!) A quick trip around the yard yielded a number of different leaves, most of which I had not yet tried for their dyeing abilities.
To the yard gatherings I added some onion skins plus cranberries and dogwood pips that I had frozen last fall. I also had on hand some dried American smokebush leaves and some florist eucalyptus (dollar euc?) that I had been saving.
I can say with certainty that osage orange leaves do NOT give off color even though the bark and roots are great. I’ve got a couple of the small balls bundled in a pot that is cooling at the moment but I’m not expecting much of anything from them, either.
Locust leaves came through nicely.
locust on cotton, iron bath
The surprises were: determining that the maple is now ready to use – lots of nice, dark almost black;
maple leaf, iron bath
the American smokebush gave off an almost black while I was expecting to see a yellow;
and red bud leaves and seed pods do just as good a job as the wild black cherry has in the past! I think it may become my new go-to leaf since the wild black cherry was cut down this winter. More pictures when I unbundle the next group.
– Hubby scored two of the last tickets to hear Carmon DeLeone and his New Studio Big Band this coming Thursday at The Carnegie in Covington!
– I have a stack of close to 60 sheets of really nice palm papers from last week’s efforts – with lots more palm pulp in the freezer – that I am confident will work well for stationery!
– Got accepted into the Boutique and Fashion Show that happens in Cleveland on Sunday, Oct. 20 this year!
– Completed my first reconstructed garment for this year’s sales from a knit shirt and two t-shirts – used all but one sleeve in the making of a dress with pockets! (Just hope there is a tall skinny woman out there who is looking for a cool, green dress!)
– And the most exciting thing is we were asked today if we would have oldest grandson, Sebastian, stay at our house for the 4th of July weekend as his parents attend a wedding out of state! This will be Seb’s first visit to his grandparents home, first time to visit with some of the cousins in this area, first extended stay away from mom and dad. There is an ulterior motive on their part: hoping to ease the ending of Seb’s dependence on his momma’s milk. He is almost 21 months old and has been drinking out of cups for a long time – just likes his mom a lot! With her going back to work – some nights – not nursing would be a big step for all of them. ITMT, we’ll need to do some childproofing before he comes. Can’t wait!!!!!
It’s the holiday art sale season and I’ve been busy. Last weekend did a show in Clifton, this weekend is the Weavers Guild Fall Sale and next weekend is the Studio Collection’s Holiday Sale at Harmony Lodge. Would love to see you there! I’ve got some great silk scarves with lovely natural dyed designs on them!
