I have had the pleasure this week of using the magical natural dye, woad, again. With the help of my dear friends Sam (also known as Peg the Dyer at Kentwell Hall) and Nicola (halfpennyhome.blogspot.com) I managed to dye all the fabric I needed to make my bracket fungi gills and dye a few puff balls just to add colour and interest. What is so exciting is that as you pull the fabric from the dye bath it is yellow and only when you waft it in the air does the magical transformation from yellow to blue occur!! How fab is that!
Here are the gills in production, the dark blue for the backing of the gills is a woollen fabric, this absorbs the colour really well and the lighter fabric for the gills themselves is cotton interlining- cotton does not take the colour so intensely.
I've also been making some leaf litter for another piece for 'Rural Collusions'. I am making leaf litter out of fabrics with natural prints i.e. leaves, flowers etc, on them. I will scatter them on the floor at Thornham in spring when there would normally be very little leaf litter around. I am very pleased with them so far but still lots more to make!
Moss production is still under way the carpet is growing as I continue to add more sections to it. Here you can see the latest pieces above ( the top piece is courtesy of Nicola and the bottom piece is mine). I have started to incorporate garden string/twine, its such a fabulous colour for moss and it has a great texture.
Here are some other pieces of work I've made using string both knitted and woven.
The piece above is called 'Lost' and the one below is called 'Quiet voices'.
The pot on the left shows my cotton tape and interlining being mordanted ready to be dyed. The pot on the right is the purple feathery rush head dye bath, gorgeous isn't it! It made the most delicious lime green.
On the left is the madder root that has been soaking in this cotton bag and to the right is the fleece we dyed with it, yes that fabulous tangerine in the colander above the saucepan is fleece!!!
