Category: Links

Paper prints

PiaChit Chat

Dry flowers apparently aren’t my thing, they look very dull and broken, some leaves might be useful. I don’t know if I went overboard squishing them real hard with clamps on the books?

I do still plan to try some garden printing, when time allows. There must be stuff out there that I can use even late in the season! Maybe I can do it on pieces of cloth that I plan to plant dye, if I use acrylics, they shouldn’t wash off no matter what I put the material through afterwards, at least that’s the deal when I get it on my clothes…. (does anyone paint and manage to look pretty throughout?) I wish I had some more fluid paints than the ones I have, guess I’ll have to invest in Golden acrylics next time.

In the meantime I saw those posts on plant dyeing on paper, which I just had to give a go although late in the season. Next summer and flowers and new dyebed (which hubby at the moment has decided to till for me as a first prep! Yay him!)

First session went quite well although I had no idea how to “steam” the paper, nor how to best keep the sandwiches tight and not floating apart. So I’ll be getting some alder leaves and some coreopsis from the freezer, and hey! How about all those dry homegrown weld and Dyer’s chamomile I collected!? Any Woad leaves left out there I wonder?

Time to get a bit scientific about it. Two pair of sheets soaked in vinegar, two in aluminium acetate. Alder leaves, more yellow birch leaves and Liquidambar styraciflua. Another sandwich, same mordants, strawberry leaves green and yellow, sage, celandine. In between the 2 sets, a layer of frozen coreopsis tinctoria and blue columbine flowers.

Then there’s the consideration of temps. Will a too high temp give dull prints? How low can you go and still get steam? I started with 150 C because 100 didn’t seem to get steamy. 120 doesn’t seem to quite work either, no visible steam anyway.

I’m showing both front and back of some sheets, since they could be used either way.

Unfortunately at some point in the drying process, I lost track of which 4 sheets were aluminium soaked instead of vinegar, AND forgot in which way they were different. I could identify them by which first sheet has the grate imprint from the oven, but after a 3 day break I also forgot which batch was on the bottom. DUH. Scatterbrain.

I’m happy enough with these results that I’m going to keep playing with paper and plants. Test which seasons give the best results and see if I can find any info on it. Some also say use “dead” leaves collected from the ground, some even use older leaves and soak them first. Hmmmm – I wonder about the above pressed flowers and stuff now?!

A short search gave me:

Cassandra Tondro on eco printing with a recipe (backwards) for paper steaming

The natural surface – great forum

Dip and stain

Threadborne list of plants to use

Next challenge: If I order a new batch of water colour paper, can I resist getting pens and inks and other lovely supplies while I’m at it?! Now that I’m getting a micro painting studio and all….

Winter on the march

PiaChit Chat

After a frosty, beautiful, sunny weekend taste of the season to come, we’re now facing a rainy prenovember this week, temps around 5 C and winds to chill your bones. Weather for crafting, yeah? October has been really mild, but I guess it couldn’t last.

I haven’t been doing anything fibery really. I’ve been busy, and then I’ve been too tired. Next up is plying my “black” shetland, I managed to spin it a lot thinner than the last batch, so now I have to make more plies to match or I’ll never have that sweater.

I did manage to finish one wip though, the new collar on my scratchy sweater.

I unwrapped my last cotton plant print experiments – very disappointing, but more about it later since I did not take advantage of the sun to take pix. I think next year I’ll try to get some silk instead.

We’ve been remodelling the bedroom wardrobes this weekend, now all that remains is reORGANIZING stuff. I just love it when I can fill a few garbage bags with old useless stuff (and get more efficient space for fiber too). I have 5 new shelves instead of a double coat rack – the other 5 I had to let the tall guy have since I made him throw out the mint green shirt his mum once bought him. 😉 I’m determined to have a clutter and dust free bedroom without his piles of whatever just draped across every possible surface. Some training in addition to the shelves will probably be involved in this project, but hope springs eternal… Come summer it’ll be paint the walls and wardrobe doors as well as carpet begone and we’ll have at least one room that’s relatively spiffy and up to date. Ok, I won’t invite any interior design magazines, but it’ll do. My life must be really dull since I can get all excited about cleaning house!!! (oh that promised trip to IKEA for my paint “studio”, when!?)

from ikea.com

And I still have outside stuff to do, small trees that need to be replanted, some baby lilacs need to be dug up, the stable is overdue to have the cobwebs removed and I need fresh gravel in front of the door instead of mud. It’s good to move your body they say. And so much more fun to do real stuff compared to mindless exercise! That said I got inspired by a tv show about the human as a running machine and got some Vibram Five-Fingers on sale. Not exactly the season for trying them out, but I do have issues with landing hard on my heel, instant knee pain when running and just feeling stiff and awkward in normal trainers. Could be just the thing? And they included free socks. 😀

Baby Arthur is now turning into a teenager and has been allowed trips outside to burn some of that energy. Oh, he sleeps so well after exploring the big wide world. He’s learned to use the cat flap, which was one of the requirements, since we have the occasional stray tom, and I want the little one to be able to escape to safety. Right now he’s feeling poorly after his 2nd vaccination, I do hope he perks up soon! I’m soo fed up with sick animals over the last few years.

You seem to need an additional brake, yeah?
No mom, we iz not fightin’!

I came across these nifty images from space, when I was zapping the interwebs, I’m thinking cool stuff could be made from some of these with Photoshop, as backgrounds for something?

ESO/Igor Chekalin

But after I’m done – I will get back on my wooly track I’m sure. Moorit Shetland to be spun (thicker this time), fiber to be dyed.

Reader Appreciation Award

PiaChit Chat

http://fibercrush.wordpress.com has nominated me for the Reader Appreciation Award.  It’s always nice to be appreciated by fellow talented fiber addicts, thank you for visiting and commenting on my ramblings! 🙂

The rules for receiving this award are as follows.
1. Provide a link and thank the blogger who nominated you for this award.
2. Answer 10 questions.
3. Nominate 10-12 blogs that you find a joy to read.
4. Provide links to these nominated blogs and kindly let the recipients know that they have been nominated.
5. Include the award logo within your blog post.

The Questions
Your favourite colour? Green?
Your favourite animal? Horses
Your favourite non-alcoholic drink? Orange juice

Facebook or Twitter? FB – mostly lurking
Your favourite pattern? Sunlight through tree branches
Do you prefer getting or giving presents? Neither. I prefer random acts of kindness – giving and receiving! (sorry – I just had to copy this one)

Your favourite number? They’re just numbers, who cares? 😉
Your favourite day of the week? Sunny, calm days
Your favourite flower? Sunflower
What is your passion? Colours

I’ve chosen some of the newest blogs in my reader to share, simply because I haven’t gotten that many yet, I’m kinda picky. Fibercrush is one of those and I thought about nominating you until I remembered I got this from you. 😉 And I’m having a hard time finding blogs that we don’t share in our lists!

Pam de Groot

Tread gently on the Earth

A word in your ear

Inspire; to breathe

Stitched up Mama

Canadian Hiking Photography

Colour it Greeen

Wendi of the treasure

Seascapes aus

The Witch of the Forest Grove

Woolwinding

Smokin’!

PiaChit Chat

Well, in awarding me the “Blog on Fire” award, Grackle & Sun (my secret internet twin – such as point 5, 6 & 8 on her list just to mention a few little synchronicities), also used the title, so I had to come up with other hot stuff. I’m honoured and amused and a tiny bit embarassed to be selected, and of course thrilled that some people actually enjoy my ramblings through hobbyland.

Thanks also for pointing me to OTHER cool blogs besides her own, expanding my territory and awareness, as well as reminding me to drink more water….

The rules for the Blog on Fire Award are to write 8 unusual things about yourself or your pet and then to share the award with 8 other bloggers who you think are on fire.

  1. While I don’t disapprove of tv as such, I rarely watch and could easily live without one. (alas, the tall guy cannot) Apart from the odd movie I mostly end up watching just the news, sporadically, or weird stuff about Egyptian mummies on the cultural channel.
  2. I then think up art yarns inspired by egyptian grave stuff.
  3. I sortof believe in magic. I mean almost. As in, wouldn’t it be nice, and well, you never can be quite sure, can you? (er yes, I do watch “Merlin” btw)
  4. My nervous wreck of an Arabian horse is too polite to really spook or disobey, but you always know if he’s scared or worried because he flaps his lower lip loudly, flipflop, flipflop.
  5. I’m 46 and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
  6. As a kid I liked to eat bananas with salt licorice pastilles.
  7. I read bedtime stories to my husband almost every night. Currently “Witches Abroad”, a Discworld novel.
  8. I have a knack for learning languages, to the point of embarrassment when I unintentionally mimic the accent of the locals on holidays to Scotland.

And for 8 blogs that I enjoy for a variety of reasons on a variety of subjects (I can’t ever stick to just one interest in life, I want it all!). Being new to blogging I’m also new to reading them, so my list is a work in progress.

pangaweka – impressionist blog in poetic form with lovely photos and recipes

La Belle Helene – fiber and jewellery artist, lovely stuff!

Growing Colour – plant dyeing and felt painting (another craft on my todo list)

Hovercraftdoggy – serving daily quirky and cool photos

whatzitknitz – knitting, dyeing, a cute dog and funnny toys

Sosae – a textile artist with my kind of appetite for colour

Photos from the area around Cairo/Giza by resident American friend

Inside the head of a South African(?) bookseller

Hey, this was kinda fun! Maybe I should play girly games more often. 😉