the PHD post (Piling it Higher and Deeper), and shop update

I’m not hoarding, but it’s starting to look like that in my studio: piles and slipping stacks of various fabrics and colours, snarls and twangles of thread in more fibres and colours, and nowhere to move or work!

There’s so much here that i will never use–and never mind how much UNdyed i have still to work through! I’ve been putting aside small packs for myself with the intention of Making, but this time i slipped in notes and sketches so i wouldn’t forget what was so all fired fascinating about the selection at the time 🙂

So….threads and fabric packs now in the shop!

A sampling:

Mossy Banks

Calgary has FINALLY greened up completely: no brown highway verges, leaves budding and fuzzing, flowers just starting to pop. I’ve been craving these fresh colours, and whipped up some dye pots to accomplish that as well!

All in the shop now 🙂

Luxe threads for stitching along and on Mossy banks! A mix of wool, silk and silk/wool in clear crisp greens and yellows dyed in historically accurate processes with osage and logwood.

 

 

What could be better than an amble along the riverside, finding little secret coves and mossy banks to sit on and dream? As the wind sways miniature willow stands, you daydream, floating in the clearness.

This pack includes silk noil, cotton velveteen and silk/rayon velvet, solid and streaked and mottled, with osage and logwood dyed in historically accurate processes, giving elegant calming blues and soft Monet mossy yellows and greens. (Note, threads are not included, just to give you an idea of depth of colour. Threads will be in a different listing!)

new threads, and the hunt for the elusive lavender

YUMMERS.

Below lac, brazilwood (sappanwood), and onion, and combos:

 

A comparison of the previously dyed onion:

Some of these will be in the shop, announcement to be made when listed 🙂 Obviously being as delicious as they are, i have reserved some for a special person: ME!

The onion gives greener tones initially, but there doesn’t seem to be much difference when overdyed. My lac and BW however were a stronger WOF for these babies, so deeper shades resulted. YUM!

These are from previously used dyebaths, after doing cloth. I don’t waste a drop! From Lac, the natural dye that shows up in searches as anything but a natural dye: lac, lac with iron, and eucalyptus:

These above are included in a new fabric pack in the shop.

And a combination of the two (because with natural dyes, purple/pink and yellow don’t always make mucky brown):

 

I have had through my dyeing days (years now, wow!) ONE skein of lavender thread. I don’t remember what i used, but i suspect it was cochineal, and the thread was silk. I’ve been partial to lavender as an accent with rust and neutrals since the days when i first started all the hand stitching. The ones i used below are commercial, but there’s no reason not to try for a natural version. The purples and lavenders on the fabrics however IS natural, from Brazilwood, and i covet those various shades!

Mother’s Heart, 2013:

The a Difference Between A Plum, detail, 2013:

Strange Soul Take Flight, detail, in progress, 2013:

(2013 was a very productive year…..)

The Mini Goddess Moons, 2018, lavender leaves on 3 of them. (These are *completely” done in natural dyes, both fabric and threads.) I like the way the lavender gleams amongst all the stronger natural dye colours.

 I suspect it’s time to get the cochineal out and try weaker solutions to get that glowing shiny shade!

 

August sunrise

The pure aura of summer poetry.

And August Sunset, prose for the dusk.

 

 

first multicoloured naturally dyed embroidery skein

It’s been my goal since the beginning of March to create 5 colour threads, using a minimum of dyes. I know which dyes blended will make certain colours (ie yellows like weld, osage, tansy and blue (indigo) will always make greens though different factors can make many shades, and indigo and madder always make purple and again shades with varying factors), but have been experimenting with other dyes that are less predictable.

I have managed to make my first 4 colour skein (silk/wool blend) using 3 dyes (logwood, osage and quebracho rojo), though it’s just a prototype as the process needs refining. The pink is too weak, the purple and yellow areas too long, and there’s not enough green to really be noticeable. However it does have lavender, pink, purple, yellow, green and coral, and that means it was fiddly work, but i figure practice will make perfect, as with all things 🙂 Still pretty pleased with myself!

My dream/wish/expectation is to make threads with colour breaks like these leaves:

They were done in these piece with “orts”, leftover bits of thread no longer than 3″–i want one thread skeins that look and act like this!

I know there there are dyers using naturals, and dyers using synthetics to make huge multicoloured knitting skeins, but since my focus is embroidery, it’s a bit more precise what i expect the end result to be. I still have to experiment with various post modifiers as well, a lightfast test for that green, and how well the process works on cotton threads.

Studying and “labbing” on!

naturally dyed threads on sale!!

All thread skeins on sale, limited quantities! My naturally dyed colours are 10m each, and are available in listed quantities as 6 strand floss or #10 perle. Next week, i will be dyeing more and they will remain at $5.00 per 10 metre skein. PLEASE NOTE: IF THE COLOUR/NUMBER IS NOT IN DROPDOWN MENU, IT IS SOLD OUT. (10 meters is almost 11 yards for those who don’t use metric 🙂 )

Sorry, below SOLD OUT

 

 

two and a half weeks of rainbow

I ♥♥♥ variegated threads. I used a lot of commercially dyed ones with earlier work ( pre 2017) but when i switched completely to using naturally dyed, there was a dearth of them available anywhere, and i was petrified at the thought of doing threads! I have since refined my use and skill level of natural dyes, and while i had successfully dyed solids, i hadn’t really thought about variegating any, beyond the simple step of post modifying dipped areas.

Last week i had shown photos to an acquaintance who waxed so eloquently rhapsodic about the colour breaks in these little leaves:

 

They aren’t variegated threads however; they were “orts” (scraps, ends) of naturally dyed solids that i couldn’t bear to throw away. Just as i have found a use for one inch squares of naturally dyed velvet, so too do i save bits of thread that are at least 3″ long!

But i started thinking about this. Much of my work is finely detailed and there is no way to get such tiny breaks of colour, unless one becomes really neurotic about the method. (Yeah, yeah, i know: some many  a few think i AM neurotic but i ain’t that much…) But, never say never. While i will not attempt breaks of 1/2″, i can do 1″. Some of the colour combos too are practically impossible: i’ll never get a half inch of green on a predominantly pink, purple, blue thread, but i can get close in each colourway. And then use 3″ long bits, NARF.

So, for the past two and a half weeks, i have been working with thread instead of fabric, playing and testing, using different combos of 4 dyes (madder, osage, cochineal –that old moldy one STILL!–and indigo) and overdyes, post modifiers and timing and got these results:

The above are two colour breaks, pretty basic, but lovely nonetheless. Obviously, indigo over anything makes magic 🙂

And a mix of the 2 colour variegateds and solids from this work, thrilling to say only 3 dyes, and some indigo :)!

I dyed many of these in larger skeins so i can divvy them up, some for me, and *some* of these for the shop, in 10 yard lengths. All are cotton, except for the three in top photo, the bright red, bright yellow and salmon, towards the right of the photo.

Next i’ll be trying 3 colour skeins and continuing this way, i’m hoping to get to 5 colour breaks, something that my tired brain actually has to draw out to figure the correct sequences.

One thing that made me really happy was that i finally got a lavender/lilac/wisteria/whateverflavour you call it in your palette (centre of bottom photo). This one is NOT going to be anything but what it is, no modifying, no other colour additions. (Until the next time.) Again, from the moldy old cochineal. I’m not saying the mold had anything to do with it, just that there is no reason to waste a dye because it’s gone off, looks funny, or is fuzzy. Yeah, if it was completely foosty, but not as a surface deal 🙂 Obviously, if this happens to you, do some tests first with a small amount, don’t just take my word for it. *Your* mileage vary vary greatly.

I must now get back to a piece that is slated for a show, due March 31st–hurry, hurry, hurry hard!!

 

plugged back in, part time

I’ve been reveling in the colours achieved, now that i “know the waters” here 🙂

(All the purples, greens and reds have already gone to a great home.)

I’m working on a new batch of threads, in various weights and plies, as i am running low myself, and would like to offer them again in the shop.

I rejoined a local fibre group, one that while i really enjoyed on an artistic and intellectual level, felt i never personally “fit” in. To hell with that mind set, i am what i am, and if they look at me like i have a third nostril, so be it. If all goes well, i’ll be joining the group show in April (appropriately, themed “to evoke a sense of community, place-making, inclusivity and intention”) with this from 2011 as a starting point:

HA. Or so i thought. This is the ONE piece i can’t find in ANY box of UFO’s, bits, nada, nuttin’ zip, zero, zilch. I *know* i didn’t throw it out during the move because i still see the potential it has–and yes, i really did toss some unfinished pieces in the trash, because i knew i would NEVER finish them, but this decidedly was not one of them.

SO. The deadline for this show is March 31st. Of course it is, because if i could find the above piece, i’d have somehow been working for a show with a further away deadline. You now how it goes 🙂 (That’s called Magical Thinking.) Because i have to start from scratch, i have 50 days to get cracking, and finish. And there’s no guarantee i will get in either, so it could just be an exercise in time management….

This is my base fabric:

See the face?

This is the sketch i’m working from (OLD and used in many ways since it’s inception in 2014):

These are my colours:

I may switch out the peachy toned one for a duller yellow, a rhubarb root dyed piece.

I know too that the pieces i have of these are not all long enough, so will have to re-invent the wheel maybe to get the effect i need.

 

It’s also going to be a good while until i can show you the “finally” set up studio–we have to re-drywall, move electrical boxes and lights, paint, and figure out storage configuration, so suffice it to say, i have enough room to work, but have to still move piles, or dig to find things.  It’s been a lesson in “clean up as you go, and organize as you store”!

 

blobbing along

Whew, Mothers Day WEEK is over. If you’re in the plants and floral industry, it ain’t just one day that ya bust yer ass for!

I managed to finish, except for turning the edges, the second piece (#5).

The leaf really rises above the surface, due to the tension of the stitch, so i’m going to pad it out more to keep that dimension.

Now i’m onto another, the #7, though not the 7th piece i’ve worked on. 🙂

I used a copper modifier again, as this is to be “similar” to #5, and added a few circles this time. They are barely readable in the photo above, but will be worked with/around and more evident when the stitching is done.

The “plan”:

#1 was done first.

The piecing of the diamonds is sometimes frustrating as i get them sewn backwards, sideways and upside down, and have to take them apart or start all over! The stitching is mindless/”mindful”, something i can easily do during tubage, slow moments or waiting for laundry to dry, ha. All the other pieces are very small, so i might NOT piece diamonds for them, or i may go full tilt and make tinier diamonds…….

The “biggest”, most intense part of the project is actually the Crone, the most important component of all, and then the final stitching of spirals over the blobs, and on the background. She is smaller than figures i’ve worked this way before, and i’m hoping the delicacy won’t be an issue. So technically, i’m further along than i thought.

Next time i do a piece like this, all the diamond blobs will be pieced first, so i can switch amongst them to keep the flow going, rather than cut one, piece one, stitch one…………

Crone progress

Still working on this, albeit very very slowly! Obviously the redder piece is going to need a bigger turn under (or trim) than i thought.

The “loosely based on a eucalyptus” leaf didn’t sing to  me, until i added the copper mix beads:

Today should enable finishing the few remaining areas in the diamonds.

The rest of the week will see little studio or stitch corner work done: it’s Mother’s Day week at the ffffFlower Mines, and already i’m tired!