Felting, dyeing, journal making

It's been an extremely busy November this year. I held my fabric journal workshop which was over two Saturdays. Prepared submissions for workshops next year at different venues. Had a day with Elizabeth felt making and another day with her visiting two lovely art and craft venues on the peninsula, as well as completing a journal commission that consisted of all fabric pages. The journal actually covered a series of events in someone's life. It was quite a challenge but one I enjoyed. In between all of that I managed to get a little more eco dyeing done, pushing colours to the limits again.
I even burnt some bundles in one pot after I let it boil dry. I had to peel the bundles off the bottom of the pot. Someone suggested I could turn the burnt spots into a feature, I'll have to see.

this is the wools, silks and fabrics ready for felting 

the finished piece, I think I'll add lots of stitching, it will probably end up as journal covers.

this is another piece waiting, you can just see a butterfly under the wool at the bottom

it became the covers for the commissioned journal, I hope to be able to show you more once the client has gifted it to a friend.

I still like the more subtle shades - this is a detail of the full piece below

The full length of the piece above

but when I achieve colour like this my heart sings

this is much more blue teal with lovely red splodges

this is also more intense than the photo shows

finally, one of the burnt offerings, the yellow is very intense as is the purple/pink

Thanks again for dropping buy and leaving your much appreciated comments. 

Eco-dyeing

Many, many moons ago I used to spin and dye my own wool with natural dyes, my aim was always to find the brightest colours possible. I've been a fan of India Flint over the past few years and have both of her books which I constantly read. Up until now I've never actually given it a go until Sunday, whenI discovered Jude, through Jacky. Jude lives all of ten minutes away from me. I joined Jacky, Dot and Nat in this fabulous process. I'm hooked, I feel like Jekyll and Hyde, I love all of the bright colours of India and Mexico, but am also rather partial to the more subdued colours of Japan and eco dyeing. Having said that I will really be pushing the natural colour range to the limits.

This is the result of my days work on beautiful old silk fabric.

not hard to guess which was my favourite dye bath - this was the purple cabbage

I also loved this one - Nat very generously brought along some fresh tumeric to share

some of the bundles after they were removed from the dye pots - ideally you would wait a few days to open them put patience isn't one of my virtues.

Jude and Nat in discussion

this is the remains of the cabbage providing a beautiful blue, jewelled hue in Jude's garden

my first unravelling

this is one of my favourite pieces

as is this, I wonder why - the lovely purple rings are from purple carrots that Nat very kindly shared with us.

surprisingly this is my favourite piece, I love the design that developed from an old rusty coil of Judes - the yellow is Nat's tumeric she shared with us.

Jude had some fabric we could use, this was a white top that I dyed in the tumeric bath. It's not very big but I'm going to remove the capped sleeves, open it up down the back and add a panel of dyed fabric, I also plan to add lots of stitching - one day.

I came home so inspired that I had to keep going, I produced this piece at home. I have a few more bundles waiting to be opened, I'm trying to be good and not peak.

I'm on a mission now, I collected flower heads from the garden and have frozen them ready to have a go at the ice-flower dyeing in India's book. I can see nothing will be safe in my garden now.

Thanks for visiting and all of your lovely comments.

I've also been felt making so will have photos in my next post.

collage cards

I'm super busy at present, I'm working on a journal commission that's a gift so I can't show it until my client's gifted it. I've also added some fabric collage cards to my Etsy store. These make ideal gifts as they can be framed and hung on the wall. I love making them, just adding little bits here and there from my fabric scraps, stitching and beading. I use lots of my hand dyed laces and fabrics in their making.

I'll be holding my second two day fabric journal workshop starting November the 10th so I'm busy putting fabrics together for page kits. I'm also working out details for some up coming workshops.

Tomorrow I'm visiting Elizabeth for a felting session, I need to make some journal covers. If you visit her blog you'll see some of the wonderful work that her school students have created, great stuff.

My thoughts are with all of the residents along the East coast of the US. We certainly know here in Australia what devastation can be caused in such a short time. Take care.

Thanks too for all of the welcome visitors and comments left on my blog, I appreciate you all.