New finds

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
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
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.

red bud seed pods on top of rust, iron bath
red bud seed pods on top of rust, iron bath

Excitement!

All sorts of exciting stuff happening here!

– Spent the weekend with some fabulous gals from the Weavers Guild of Greater Cincinnati at their annual fiber retreat in Oldenburg (Srs of St Francis convent Center – special place!) and wound up with some great rusted clothing!

– 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!!!!!

Maple a dud, dyebath a winner!

Well, spring maple leaves do NOT have the dyeing power that fall ones have.  In fact, they have next to nothing in them to give color.

Rather, I should say, I could not get any color out of  the spring leaves!

BUT, the dye bath itself was one that I was reusing and had lots of good color in it along with some rusty nails, so the refolding of the jacket I was trying to dye created some glorious new ‘wrapped shibori’ marks from where the cloth was newly open to the ambient ‘juice’. The jacket is still damp and hasn’t been washed yet, but I expect I’ll keep a lot of the new marks which blend nicely with the original dyeing that I did last year on it. Hope the owner likes it!

IMG_0173 IMG_0170 IMG_0171

Maple seeds

Oops – forgot to actually post this earlier….

With all the maple seeds flying around right now, I thought I’d see what they had to offer in a dye pot.

And the answer is:  not much!  Just a bit of a greenish sort of color but hardly worth the effort to collect more. One more thing ticked off the list of things to try.

I am trying out young maple leaves that came down with some wind we had. The leaves in the fall give a luscious dark purply black. Not sure what these young ones will do. They are in the pot as I type.

Sales wrap up and up next

A big thank you to all you came by my booth at Harmony Lodge and Clifton Cultural Arts Center or shopped the Weavers Guild Fall Sale – the last three weekends have been very good for my inventory of naturally dyed clothing and scarves.

I now get a breather from sales concerns and can focus on family!  We’ll be gathering for Thanksgiving dinner with our sons and their wives …. and our two new grandchildren!  I’m all prepared to do some major cuddling.

Wishing all of you, where ever you are, a time of peace, gentleness, and generosity.