Back on the World Wide Web

Hello!

We have finally regained internet access after our move last weekend...I feel out of touch with things at the min and have been sat here for the past hour updating addresses and accounts which is now making me rather sleepy as I think this is the longest I have sat still since last Friday! So yes, fairly tired.

The move itself was tedious - just when i though i'd sorted everything i'd remember something else, then there was the cleaning, the handing over of the keys to the new tenant who was a pain in the backside, and now there's the decorating! We have made a start on our bedroom but I am having a day off from it today and decided to cut the grass and cut weeds that are poking through our back fence instead.

Tomorrow I have appointments at B&Q and Wickes to design some kitchen ideas - an expense we could do without but we desperately need the lopsided cupboards replacing and a working oven sooner than we thought - it's very hard doing a food shop when you can't use an oven! Thank the lord for finance options.

On Sunday I am heading home to Whitby to visit family for a couple of days - this had been booked well before we knew our moving date as it is my Mum's birthday at the beginning of May and although she is telling me not to bother I am as it has been nearly two months since we last met up already!

Then on Wednesday I shall return to work....we won't say too much about that.

As with regards to Lissi, I have now offically re-opened all online shops for people to peruse once again. I have started to add some products to my 'Buy Online' section on this blog so that people can be directed straight to a shop if they see something they like. I have also started added some dye samples imagery to the 'Gallery' section for a bit of interest too. I have photos of new products taken a couple of weeks ago to edit then I can add these products online to share with you all. Hopefully they should start to emerge within the next week or so when things (might) start to settle down.

It's good to be back!

Plaque By Aiden Crafts

Moving Day

So today is the day; boxes packed, still bits and bobs unpacked....where has it all come from?!?!

But the day has arrived and we'll be off to pick up the keys shortly....this will be my last post for a week or so as we are to be disconnected and await reconnection in our new house, which I have been told can take 1-2weeks - I don't know how I will cope without the world wide web for so long but maybe it will make me concentrate on the wallpaper striping, skirting board sandpapering etc a little better without it!

So i'll be back soon, hopefully with good tales to tell :) x

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!

A New Glow

I have been rummaging through my stacks of experimented fabrics recently trying to find things I can make some use of. I came across this long leafed eucalyptus printed piece of silk and thought I must make something from it!





However as you can see the print is a very subtle shade of green/brown and in some areas of the fabric looked dirty, though I know it isn't, it's part of the print, I'm not sure how a potential buyer would see this. I then remembered that I had bought a jar of turmeric spice powder to experiment with and it was still sitting in the cupboard untouched. So i decided to boil up a pan. I let the turmeric simmer for about an hour before straining the powder from the water and then adding the silk. (Again, my patience was not used in this experiment as I just tossed all the fabric in at once thinking about the spontaneity of it all!)


The fabric simmered gently for about an hour, and once dried gave a startling glow...



It is a lovely shade and great for summer, but I just feel it is too bright for my collection?!


So I decided I would cut a sample to experiment colour modifying with...
And so, out came the cups! I decided that if you're going to test something then you might as well test it thoroughly, and with a bit more caution than I sometimes do; so i mixed up five solutions as below...

From left to right - Copper & Vinegar Water; Copper Water; Vinegar Water; Soda Water; Iron Water.

You can see above after 15 minutes of soaking there was significant colour changes.

I compiled the results in my notebook next to each other so the variations can be seen clearly, ranging from bright yellows to murky beige and green....

I am leaning towards the duller yellow (copper modified) as I think it would sit nicely in with other colours in my current stock collection.

Though I can't decide for sure on which method to use for the full piece of silk yet, or if I should just even leave it the bright yellow as it is?!...would love to know your thoughts on what colour you would most likely want to wear....

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.....

Oh the life....

Rosie relaxing on a bean bag while doing a great 'Super Cat' impression !

(sorry, photo a bit rubbish but she was looking very frightening with the flash!)

More serious post to follow in the next couple if days x

Egg-Tastic ! !

I'm very excited about Easter this year as it is the first full Easter I have had off for many years!

So to celebrate i've collected some of my favourite 'Egg' related items from Folksy.

Spotty Dotty Egg Cards from Hannah Madden

Set of 4 Egg Cosies from Charlotte Macey Textiles

Hanging Easter Eggs from Fiona Design

Soy Wax Tea Lights from Mr Wick

Hope everyone has a lovely Easter !

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!

Guess who !

She just has to be in everything :)

Experimenting...

Yesterday I decided that I would make time, I have been trying to make time for the past few weeks mind, to conduct some fresh colour tests for future dye projects.

I wanted to start basic with what I know best - Eucalyptus dyes. I used a secondry dye that had been brewed a few weeks a ago and stored, and began by warming it gently. I then cut up several sample pieces of silk and threw them all in the pot (below) and set the timer rolling.

(Please note that the flash was used and therefore the liquid dye was not quite as bright as this photograph is showing!)

The silk swatches were removed every 15 minutes. There were 5 batches of swatches so the longest time soaked totalled 75 minutes. The results for solely Eucalyptus dyed swatches can be seen below with the various times marked.

The remaining swatches were then divided into three ready for their next stage of experimentation, which was to add them to colour modifiers to see if any changes would occur.

The modifiers I had prepared were a Soda Water Modifier, a Vinegar Water Modifier and a Iron Water Modifier as below...

(All three modifiers were prepared by me, but the Iron Water is marked as home made as this was solely prepared from re-claimed rusty nails rather than a powder bought solution.)

The next step was to prepare all the various water modifiers to all the individually timed swatches. So out came the plastic cups. Each were marked as to what their contents would be, then a teaspoon of the specific modifier was added along side half a cup of cold tap water.

The swatches were then added and photographed after 15 minutes to record any changes...

Already at 15 minutes soaking time I could begin to see colour changes.

Then they were photographed at 30 minutes....

Then again at 45 minutes...

And finally at 60 minutes....

It is clear from the photographs that a lot of the colour changes occur within the first 30 minutes of being added to the colour modifier.

The swatches were then chopped in half, leaving one half in the pots to soak for a further hour with an additional teaspoon of modifier.

The results from both tests were then recorded beside each other to compare for additional changes and to store for future records and dyeing times.

Soda Water Modifier Results

Vinegar Water Modifier

Iron Water Modifier

And that is just a few tests from one leaf source! I have plans to test a lot of different plants and flowers, and hopefully it won't be too long before I find the time again!

I hope you have enjoyed this post and found it quite interesting, would love to know your thoughts.

Spring is Springing !!

At last it's time where we can all start to shread the chunky winter knits, well maybe only to some finer choice knits for now, and start to embrace the outdoors and colourful delights on offer once again!

Yes it's spring time and that welcomer of spring is starting to pop up across the country in beautiful bright glory, shouting 'hello it's me' ! I am of course talking about the daffodil. I really enjoy it when it makes it's appearance and start to look forward to longer, warmer and, hopefully, sunnier days ahead.

So today I have been browsing around Folksy looking for all things Daffodil, and here is just a small choice of whats on offer....

Bright felted Daffodil brooch from Sue2

A set of three note/Easter cards from Pollyhogg Photography & Design

Beautifully beaded Daffs from Fleurs de Perles

Free hand embroidered cushion from Maxemilia

You can find many many more Daffodil treasures at Folksy.

Soaps For Mum...

Today was Mothers Day and although I could'nt be with my mum today I was very much thinking about how great she is :)

All mum's are fantastic but your own is always the most precious isn't she. It's fair to say that my mum is my best friend, my rock... and font of all knowledge!!! Hopefully she knows this already x

I treated my mum to a lucious soap cup cake surprise from fellow Folksy seller Soap Aroma, who makes delicious, good enough to eat, handmade soaps. I choose to send my mum a box of four muffin soaps topped with sprinkly delights....

Lissi's Long Apricot Silk Scaf has been featured in an Etsy Treasury by Simply Inviting.



Please take a look as my computer doesn't seem to want to save the screen page right now!

Stocking up on Etsy

After joining Etsy last year I have finally decided that I am going to give it a go and list some items in my shop there.

I find Etsy is very vast and extremely hard to get noticed but i'm trying! I have listed 5 items so far, and intend to stagger listings, as I am with my Folksy shop now, in the hope that one of my products will be floating about in the early pages of searches etc.

I have also been spreading the link love with my Etsy shop included but as yet I still have only 1 person who hearts my shop :( It is still early days but would love some support if anybody would like to heart me and of course I will always reciprocate and spread the word :)

Visit Lissi on Etsy here www.etsy.com/shop/lissionetsy

She just can't help herself!

Yes, another pan delivered and 'Nosey Rosie' is back again!!

She really likes to be involved in everything thats going on it seems....though she is clever enough to know when not to step into the pans too, instead she prefers to climb the cupboards and sniff from above.... She needs to get out more!

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......