A long time coming

Our new fabulous branded labels have finally arrived, hurrah !!

These are going to finish things off just nicely x

Coral

A Little Different....

Silk tie-dyed with logwood giving purple base, fabric left wet with nails laid in/on the fabric.

Two triangular scarves to come from this for the more daring purchaser !

Weekend Results

Last week i received a delivery of some new fabric and couldn't wait for the weekend to arrive so I could get out the dyeing pans!!

This year I made a promise that I would be more experimental in my dyeing again, and new fabrics is one of them. The fabric I bought was a very fine cotton, lightweight and perfect for spring into summer time wears.

My first dye batch was with Logwood which has produced a lovely dusky pink - perfect colours for the coming seasons ! All the edges are to be left raw and unfinished, and all that needs adding is signature label - never have I had so little to do with a piece.....

There's another length in the pot now simmering away and I will probably let it cool over night.

Let me know what you think, and hopefully they'll start popping up in my Folksy and Etsy shops in the next week or so.

Multi task sunday

Don't weekends always seem to go so fast?!....infact faster than the other five days in the week I would say!

Ours has been busy.

On Saturday we drove over to Durham in the hope that Ste could speak to a jeweller about a possible job. He met and spoke briefly and was asked to ring and arrange to go back during the week as the poor guy was full of clients and customers waiting to be seen. So seen as this was not a straight no, we are a little hopeful about it.

On to Sunday. A day at home. I should have made a list as I know I haven't done half the things that were floating about in my head, but here's a few of the more interesting bits....

decided to gather some dyed silk and leave it to soak with the addition of some lovely rusted nails. I will seek the result next weekend so it can dwell all week in the shed.....

fought with the printer and forced it to print on silk as I have ran out of labels ....

cut some dyed silk ready for sewing over the coming nights (hopefully!)....

I also baked some cakes and cooked a hearty stew for tea, as well as all the other household chores that need to be kept in order !!

Below are a couple of new items, one of each as been added to my Folksy and Etsy shops.... and each shall be added to the other during the week....

And back to the 9-5 tomorrow ! Hope you all had a lovely weekend x

Cluny Craft Market

Lissi will be holding a stall at the next Cluny Craft Market on

Sunday 6th February!

Look forward to seeing you there x

Encouragement

A few previous nail printed fabric images that are encouraging me to be more experimental again this year....

January Sale

If you haven't already seen all the links and listings, Lissi's Januray sale is now on!!

You can save up to 20% on selected items (most of the items listed by the way!) throughout January. Sale will end on the 31st January when full prices will be resumed.

So if you fancy a wee treat and a new year bargain, click on one of the images below to take you straight to a Lissi shop....


Happy shopping! x

Purple Daze

The latest in my yarn dyeing has produced an array of bright purple daze!

Dyed using a natural plant based dye from Logwood, the yarns below show a varying gradient of purples.
The yarn is DK Merino 100grams per skein.

I have lots of yummy coloured yarn to list still - the reason it is taking so long is that I am having great difficulty taking good pictures with my camera lately. Very frustrating as I have tried two cameras that I have and they both are showing fuzzy and the wrong represenations of colour!! grrrrr...I am working on it and will hopefully have some good photos soon.

Below is a piece of silk that was also dyed in the Logwood dye pot. wrapped in a bundle and tied with elastic bands it was firstly soaked with heat added and left overnight. The following three nights I have rearranged the elastic bands and left it to soak in the cold dye bath which has created a striking pattern throughout...


Which type of scarves shall I make from this?....

All Sewn up

Do you recognise these?.... The fabrics were previously blogged over when they had left their dye baths here.

Now all sewn up and awaiting some photo styling we have long scarves and circle snood scarves...

Tricky ones to photograph, especially the leaf printed one, as some of the details are so light to capture!

I'm hoping to get some photo styling done very soon....the weather has not been very friendly to us this August and therefore is messing with our schedules !!

They shall appear in an online shop near you soon... styled or un-styled...

Delayed...

Yes, sorry about the delay in getting these photos online!

Can someone please throw me some extra time though, as all of mine keeps getting swallowed up too quickly....

Anyhow, here's a few pic's of the festered silk.

As I said in my previous post the marks hadn't given the depth i'd hoped for but still make for some interesting viewing...

Update...

I don't know where time has gone over the past few weeks since we moved but we have now been here for nearly a month! Can you believe it.

The house itself is still very much upside down, things are moving a lot slower since I went back to work (boo) but I have a couple of long weekends over the next couple of weeks (yay!) so hopefully be able to give the decorating a good push forward and empty more boxes. We did finally find the camera battery charger - it's just my other half now has it on him when I finally get chance to sit down here at the comp! I have a few pics to share about the joys of decorating and will show you all soon.

Although I am pretty busy I am desperately missing dyeing and experimenting! I have also booked a stall at a local country show in the craft tent in August so really need to start preparing for it now. It will be my first stall and I'm very excited. I would have loved to have committed to a few more over the next few months but I decided I am best not committing to too many at once and especially when I've just moved and got a house to straighten up and furnish! But it will be a good taster at stall life and hopefully be successful with interest too.

I've been editing a few photo's here and there too, below are the latest which will hopefully be listed in a shop over the next couple of days.....

Treasury Feature

Lissi's Naturally Dyed Peach Silk Scarf has been featured in a lovely treasury called 'One Perfect Summer Day'.

Please take a look here before it closes !

Happenings...

I have a couple of things to share...

Firstly, we are moving into our very own home on Friday! I have been keeping (fairly) quiet about buying our first house as I have quite honestly been nervous throughout the whole process! We made the offer at the end of January and thought we would have been moved a lot sooner as there are no chains etc but it's taken over three months and we're finally going.

We've started to pack up our belongings this past week and discovered that there is a lot to shift and that the five boxes I had already managed to collect barely stored anything once we got started!

Here's a picture of Rosie exhausted from it all....

Yes, she had managed to get cosy in a couple of stacked boxes and fall into a nice deep sleep...as you do. She has no idea what is happening and hopefully she will adjust well in her new home.

Secondly, on the crafting front, I have invested in a wee box of DK Merino yarn...only 4.5kgs!

I have been wanting to dye yarn for some time but due to lack of outside space I had resisted, but now we are moving and will have a front and back garden to play in I decided I would stock up ready to take the plunge! I am hoping to dye yarn to sell in skeins as well as making limited pieces for my Autumn and Winter collections.

I will keep you updated when I come to doing some colour tests!

Gold !

Using the same techniques and testings as in the Previous post ( A New Glow ) I experimented with a piece of silk that had been dyed using onion skins.

The silk had been boiled in the dye pot for 30mins to achieve a lovely warm peachy glow, as shown on the left hand side of the note pad below. Having used this shade in previous work I thought it would be good to carry on experimenting to see what other colours can be obtained, and mixed up some colour modifer solutions.

The results are as follows....

(left to right, top row - Soda Water; Iron Water; Copper & Vinegar Water; bottom row - Vinegar Water; Copper Water.)

The variety is really clear and I was quite surprised at all the lovely shades that came from the same dyed cloth! I fell for the gold shade which came from the Copper & Vinegar Water solution.

The rest of the silk was then modified and below are a couple of products awaiting photo styling before being added to my shops...

Golden Neck-Tie Silk Scarf

Golden Triangle Silk Scarf

Let me know what you think!

I must be more patient....

Last week I added a good metre or so of silk to this jar of eucalyptus dye along with a few onion skins squashed in between. The silk had previously been experimented with a 'compost dye' technique where the fibre is wetted then dye stuffs (i.e. leaves, petals, vegetable skins etc) are folded in with the fabric and left in a tied plastic bag to do as they please.
Unfortunately, I was very inpatient and opened it only after a week or so and therefore not a lot had happened! So, now I know I must be more patient!

The silk has now been soaking for 7 days sitting on a sunny window sill which can be called 'Solar Dying' but I don't think it has been warm or sunny enough. I am thinking of releasing it from the jar to heat in a pan for an hour then straining the liquid and returning the fabric to the jar with some addition findings....

I will post the results in a week or two...depending on how long i can wait!

Latest Edition....

Today I added my newest style of scarf to my Folksy Shop - a Triangle scarf. It is made from the most luxurious soft habotai 12 silk and was printed using my favourite eucalyptus steaming technique!

Below are more images of the print details within the scarf and styles for wearing......

More products to be listed soon......