THIS time I was playing with the remnants of my beautiful Mothers Day bouquet :) It had lots of gorgeous lilies and roses.. The roses faded first, and unfortunately I had thrown most of them away before thinking of dyeing with them (duh). I only thought of it after wiping pollen from the lilies off my window sill ... it reminded me of India Flints book Second Skin (LOVELY book!) she has a piece of silk dyed with lily stamens in there.
So, I left my last rose hidden away at the back of the vase until the lilies were done.. and then I chopped 'em all up :)
I decided to do 2 strips of white habotai/china silk. One of them just wrapped around a stone, the other around a rusted 'cog' found on a Dorset beach a couple of years ago.
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| On the strip wound round a stone I laid lily petals as well as stamens |
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| Bundling it around a stone |
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| Tied up nice and tight |
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| Ready for the pot |
I 'cooked' them for about an hour in vinegar and water, then left them in the pot over night.
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| This is how it looked when I took the lid off.. this is when it gets exciting - unbundling and seeing if it worked |
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| Lovely windy day.. took only 10 minutes to dry :) |
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| This is my favourite piece.. I LOVE the dark iron marks. You can't see it on the photo but there are some nice - though faint - rose leaf prints. I didn't have many stamens on this piece. |
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| The petals left no marks, and I didn't get much from the stamens on this one (and there were quite a lot on). The iron in the water left its mark on the parts which weren't touching the bottom of the pan |
I was surprised at how little yellow I got on the silk.. look at what it did to my table as I unbundled them!!
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| Took a good 20 minuted scrubbing and bleaching to get these buggers to fade! Lesson for next time: Unwrap on an old towel! |
I've got a long way to go yet with this eco dyeing.. but it's definitely progress. And the hunt is now on for more rusty bits n pieces.. and the ever elusive eucalyptus tree :)
7 comments:
I always love seeing the eco-dyeing experiments of others; it has become an addiction for me and this is the year I intend to get more consistent (perhaps) with lots of new experiments; Thanks for posting about the lily stamens..too bad you weren't intentionally going for that yellow on the tablecloth-quite bright and lively! The intentional iron marks and prints look very fine, indeed!And thanks for coming by my blog, Deborah.
interesting experiment. Ive done a wee bit of rust dyeing but hadn't thought of flowers, Ali
Ginny :) that was my wipe-clean plastic table top.. which did NOT want to wipe clean. It's gone now though thank goodness.
Ali, take a look at India Flints dyeing - she creates amazing eco prints with leaves and flowers. She has a couple of books out, Second Skin is the one I have and it is lovely. Not got 'recipies' and how-tos' but very inspirational and gives enough information to start you experimenting on your own eco adventure.
xx
Great that you're going to try eco print. Nice to have some marks on the first trial. You'll explore the beauty with euc leaves once you got it.
Thanks Terrie, you keep on inspiring me to try again! This isn't my first go, but the strongest marks I have got yet :) The iron made a big difference
xx
I'm fascinated by the process of dying with natural things, love the rusty shades you achieved. I remember we tried to dye eggs with the yellow gorse flowers once, often use to experiment as children.
Hi Ruthie :)
I'd LOVE to be making lovely eco prints.. I'm not there yet, but hope to be one day :) I do like the rust marks, and there are faint leaf outlines within the rust that the camera misses.
Take a peak at Terrie's blog her eco prints are gorgeous, and I just know you will love her journals..
http://terriekwong.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/eco-print-wordless-story-book.html
and India Flint's work is AMAZING! This is her website; http://www.indiaflint.com
xx
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