Many years ago I used to dye wool and fabric with natural dyes, gum leaves, onion skins etc. refusing to touch commercial 'colourful' dyes, but that was many years ago. Now I'm torn between the two I love the brilliant colours that can be achieved with the commercial dyes, but also love the thrill when I open a bundle of plant dyed silk. India Flint has mastered this art to perfection over the years and has named it Eco Dyeing, I like to call mine 'Pot Luck' as it does greatly depend on the pot you use and where the water came from. I've had a really bad flu bug this past two weeks and decided to spend Saturday over the eucalyptus dye pot. I'm not sure if it killed any bugs but it certainly helped clear my head. Following are the results.
these are the bundles after steaming
I couldn't wait for more than a day to open them, these are sections of the cloths. I left one unbundled.
these are some of the commercial dyed results, I even dyed some white buttons
I'll be cutting some of these fabrics, laces and doilies up and making colour packs like the ones below to add to my
Etsy, as well as using them in current projects.
Finally, this is what I'm working on at present, it's a commissioned piece that will be a concertina book. I'm depicting Monet's garden for the background. There will be many layers.
the background fabric was all shades of green, I've coloured some of the flowers and added free motion leaves and willow branches. I still have to work on the bridge.
my dyed yellow buttons have become flowers, I still have lots more stitching, beading etc to add.
Thanks again for visiting and commenting, I'll try not to take so long before I post again.