Sunday, September 16, 2012

Acorns keep falling on my head! Time to move the fibers studio indoors!!


What a glorious summer to dye fiber outside! Heat and sunshine! Dreadful for our gardens, but rust printing, eco-printing, and indigo dyeing on fabric and handmade paper was excellent! Back in August, as a way of showing my appreciation to Pat Vivod for teaching me how to rust print, I invited her for a day in my garden studio to indigo dye.  What a grand time we had. See more about our adventure on her August 13, 2012 blog post, Sentimental Pentimento: Fun in the Shade

The summer indigo studio, hammock ready and waiting.  Now, just a memory.

Pat Vivod indigo dying

Pat Vivod resist clamping pre-rusted silk before dying in indigo vat

Shibori and clamp resist cloth hydrating before dying in indigo
Pat Vivod's indigo on pre-rusted silk
Indigo oxidizing on cotton
Indigo on pre-rusted cotton

You may remember from my posts, or Pat's posts about my rusting the above fabric at her studio.


Because of the drought, the grass really was this color
Here it is on my clothesline (and in the photo above) after two rounds of shibori resist dyeing in the indigo vat. Looking forward to using it at the beach the next time I visit my daughter, Betsy, at her condo in Florida!

But now that fall is upon us, and the acorns are falling from the tree over the vat, it was time to say farewell to fair weather dyeing by moving the vat inside to the basement studio ... until next year!

4 comments:

  1. Wonderful to see these,Elizabeth; i did read about your visit with Pat and I will likely go back and revisit her blog and your older posts..All this is newish to me and I am gathering and printing and dyeing like mad..and really enjoying what I'm seeing on blogs. Lovely pieces, wtiht the rust and indigo; and acorns falling on your head or at least, acorns all around can't be a bad thing for next projects! I'm about to look for some today, in fact!

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  2. Hi Ginny,

    Thanks for your comments and good luck with your new dyeing projects. Be careful. It is addictive!

    Best, Elizabeth

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  3. i found my way back here and look at what's been going on! yay. those sunbursts are really fun! love the layers of color/pattern

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  4. Thank you Velma,
    The sunburst shapes were made from on of Pat Vivod's old farm tractor discs. We had a grand time working together.
    Cheers,
    Elizabeth

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