Encouragement

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

Finally...

...the silk from the jar experiments has been made into a scarf!

Do you remember this jar with the silk stuffed inside and left to do it's thing through snow, frost and sunshine?

The final destination for the silk was in a aluminium bucket with several exhaust dyes poured on top. Lots of reclaimed iron nails were added. The top of the bucket was wrapped with cling film and then it was left out in the sunshine and rain for a further couple of weeks.

I didn't report on this at the time as it was when I lost my camera back in July so I couldn't take any pictures to share!

So, anyway, here is a final piece (finally) to show you all.

I have made a triangular scarf...

The piece of silk has enough left to make a second triangular scarf and hopefully a long scarf or a circle snood scarf.

I think it was worth the wait :)

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...

Almost forgotten about...

...but it was probably for the best as now I am very tempted to open it up and see what (if anything) has been occuring in the jar for nearly two months!
Since we moved it had taken a very sunny position on the patio amongst some pots and has had a variety of weathers to contend with - a very sunny patio has at times been wet and gloomy, and I do believe we had frost at the beginning of May too. I'm hoping these four seasons in two months have produced some interesting marks on the piece of silk inside!

Maybe I will open it before the weekend is out.....

For those of you who have never seen this stuffed jar before you can find previous blogs here and here about the piece of silks journey so far.

Should I open it yet?!?.....

Contents = silk + foliage = unknown

In a recent post I showed a photo of silk sitting contently in a jar of eucalyptus dye, well below is that very piece of silk!

As I explained in the post it had been experimented with for a compost dye technique and I hadn't been patient enough to leave it long. The marks on the silk are from the compost dye which had various leaves folded in with the fabric. The dye the silk has been sat in has been exhausted as it would normally be showing a deeper orangey-tan colour having stewed for so long. And so I decided I would experiment further....


I collected foliage from out and about outside my home. In the picture above you can see Ivy, Bracken, Laurel, Rhododendron and dried leaves from autumn, plus the odd flecks of purple are Crocuses that have seen better days.

They were all spritzed with water them folded tightly and squeezed back into the jar.....



I'm very curious as to what will emerge differently this time, if anything, and for how long I can wait before opening.....

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!