while on dyeing

gork seeds

can someone please tell what these are? they were given to me by my ex- hairdresser before moving to another town. she was into natural hair coloring so i'm sure these will yield color. but i'd like to know what they are before processing them. any lead will be welcomed.one thing i know, they're not annatto

neki desu

amonia, lichens and mahogany

a few weeks ago in one of the dyeing lists deb mcclintock published her doings with lichens.

i remembered i had some survivors from my throwing away rampages that could easily qualify as antiques. locating them was not too hard, but their state was doubtful. they were still attached to pieces of wood and rocks( ok in the early days we were young and not environmentally aware, remember?) the clumps dry and brittle and to the touch some disintegrated into dust. 

half the job done as they would not need to pass the mortar pestle routine! cleaned all the dirt and foreign matter and put them in a plastic jar with ammonia. 

a month later i needed 100 ends to complete the summer top warp and threw them in a pot with warm distilled water and some of the lichen liquid.the liquid as you can see in the photo is reddish brown sort of mahogany color. i was expecting more red or at least less brown , but after this soak  i'll try and shift the color towards red  with some lime juice. if worse comes to worst i'll make do with the color as is. don't think it will look totally bad with the rest of the warp.
 

neki desu

creating textures on fabric

a while ago i came across this product and curious as i am i set on a quest to get it and run some tests.
i lucked out when i discovered it was sold in madrid and last month when i was there i finally got it.
it also served as a good excuse to explore a neighborhood we were not familiar with and take one of our famous marathon walks. 2.6 kilometers each way!
when i opened the pack i became dubious about the sort of fabric, it was similar to a plastic tent, but taking a beep breath i realized that if it was going to shrink both ways hence creating texture it had to be plastic.

the steps:

• cut a piece larger than the finished size you want.
• pin it to the back of the material to be textured.  
• stitch, either hand or machine.
• place an iron over never on ,remember it's plastic, and steam.
•  edges will curl and  you may need to pin the fabric so that the steam gets to the center.
• it will stop shrinking when it's done.

by altering the spacing of the stitching  more or less dramatic texture can be achieved .

 according to their weights fabrics can give interesting textures, i even ran a test on a handwoven sample. the only caveat is that it feels stiff and the fabric won't be reversible.but i think it has possibilities for book covers and tapestries.

you can see samples on various  fabrics in the slide show.

have fun!

neki desu