Introduction

Hello EVERYONE,   Today is the first day of my blog about how I dilly dally as a textile artist.  For starters let's play with "Eco Colour" a lovely book by India Flint.  My friend Myrna Geisbrecht (worth watching her blog) introduced this to me.  I had to try it pronto and am excited about the results.  

First I collected leaves, moss and such from my yard.  These were spread randomly on a piece of silk charmeuse.

Next, I carefully rolled up, folded and bound the entire kit and caboodle.

I decided to steam it with pure distilled vinegar in my steam pot.  I let the vinegar do its job for several hours.

After it cooled I removed it, opened it outside, shook off the plant material.  It was them immersed in an alum solution, washed with light soap and voila:  here is what it looks like.  The colors are beautiful golds, browns, black and even some pinks.  

Close up of some of the gorgeous leaf patterns.  I wish the perfect sheen of the charmeuse would show here, but I think you can get the idea.

Highly recommend this style of dying.  I want to now do some experiments with one type of plant to understand how the colors work.

Enjoy!

Fortune Art Designs fortune for this wonderful day:

Remember to color outside the lines - - - OFTEN!