Portfolio of older work

Friday, October 22, 2010

Playing with Flowers

Yesterday I took a day off from work and joined Beth and Rosalita in their Thursday play date. They had invited two more eager experimenters to join them, Kathy and Charlene, so there were 5 of us around Rosalita's table.  One of the projects we tried was dyeing with flowers.  Beth had tried it the night before, carefully following the directions Yvonne gave in her post on Fibre Heart. Faint yellow cotton.  That is all that Beth got.

 I was undetered and wanted to try again, maybe playing with the directions a bit (Who?  ME?   Not follow directions?? LOL)  So, using more alum and wrapping the cloth tighter, here are the results of my two attempts. 

The roses gave me very faint leaves and color (thank you Beth and Rosalita for sacrificing your flowers).  Not unpleasant but a lot of work for little color and pattern.  If you look close you can see the leaves.

But the mums! (thank you for the sacrifice, Rosalita!) The dark red mums turned a surprising blue/purple.  I would love to try the mums again!

If one morning your mums are in full bloom but by evening, the bush is bare....I don't know what could have happened to them. Tee Hee

4 comments:

  1. Hi there!
    I'm so glad you found the world of blogging - I enjoy seeing your growth as an artist - even though I don't always comment - I always read your posts :)
    Not only do I love hydrangeas in person - I love what they do for dyeing!
    Say hi to hubby for me :)
    Love,
    Laurie

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  2. What fun we had and I love our 2 new additions to the group.

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  3. I was browsing blogs and misread (the way you do) about me......I read 'here I am in my wedding outfit' so I just had to click on.

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  4. I like both pieces, but the subtleness of the rose fabric presents an opportunity to do some additional surface altering process--stencils, paint, dye, stamping foiling, screenprinting, etc. Of course, I LOVE writing on fabric. That particular piece would be a lovely backdrop for some writing. Ooooo, the possibilities....

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