Like I mentioned on the main blog, the aquarium heater is again kaput.
I will order another one as I had a thought about how to protect the heater from the high pH which is what I think is doing these things in at about 5-6 months. ( the idea is to encase the heater in a plastic bag of some sort before immersion) Should not interfere with its use. Will let you know if it works! But today it’s over 80 and the vat is warming in the sun!
*readers reported that this post (done using the WP mobile app was not allowing the video to function as normal so have redone the post from the laptop.
a new “almost” post pandemic obsession has arisen…(i say almost as still not eligible for a vax here yet- i hope i do live to see the day!)
madder. in nihongo- akane.
written in kanji, it means “grass that dyes the color of the western sky”. perhaps the color of the sun setting in the western sky. the circle in the Japanese national flag.
in actuality, it’s the root of the plant that is used for dye.
I have had madder growing here for a number of years and have moved it three times, most recently last summer. the first time i planted it it was taking over an area that i wanted to use to plant vegetables. i moved it to an area that was very out of the way along the side of the garage where it wasn’t competing with anything. as it turned out, the soil was too difficult to dig up the roots. it was growing fine but i decided i needed it somewhere that had nice loose soil so it is now located in an area under a ginko tree on one side and a kaffir lime tree on the other. i have mulched that area for decades and the soil is great. doesn’t get as much sun as i’d like but for now it’s there. i had told myself it didn’t “madder” as I was only going to grow enough to keep the indigo vat in good microbial balance.
HA!
now with my new obsession of combining indigo and madder…i may have to start a somewhat small raised bed somewhere that has good sun and the right kind of soil. in the meantime, i use purchased madder root.
currently, i am doing experiments with the madder, mordants, and shifting the color by altering the pH. more orange with just alum, and darker red with a pH shift using soda ash. i really love how overdyeing the madder with the indigo creates almost a black color. the vat provides the higher ph. of course you can also do this with iron if you are not using indigo, but i am. so far i am practicing on old silk. i’ll do cottons next. preliminary cotton tests have not been as satisfying. i’ll work up to that. fact is, i just really love dyeing silk.
it’s dye writing(as planes buzz in the background)
lower moon shifted with SA
madder has a square and sticky/like velcro stem
4 leaflets growing like a star
silk tests top alum mordanted/ bottom shifted with SA
no video today as the other day when i was doing the process below there were just too many planes to deal with and it was making me crazy. photos only. plus, for some reason video is still problematic through the mobile app and i’m actually regretting i even though it would work. i had done it in the past but there must be some changes that i’m just too uninterested in figuring out.
I heard back from a few people regarding the zoom and the consensus was that an afternoon PST would be best so everyone from east to west coast could join if they wanted to. I’m going to leave the topics open and let you just AMA style (ask me anything) and we can meander around. feel free to prepare something to share yourself if you would like to.
Let’s say a time frame of 3-4 pm (we can go longer if desired) on Saturday April 10? I was going to do it sooner but we are running into Passover and Easter for some people so don’t want to conflict with any family plans you may have. How does that sound? I will send out the info a day ahead and a reminder the morning of.
The rain and wind are gone and it’s back to the vat.
I did manage to get this done last night and now just need to get the proper hanger for it.
On the outdoor work table today
The old hemp cloth provided a nice surprise. The interior sides of the two moon layers created a few air bubbles that translated into an interesting result.
Usually I consider the outward facing sides to be the “right” side as they are usually clearer and more distinct. These days though, I’m favoring the indistinct.
Hinode means sunrise in Japanese and I like using this pattern as a base for moonmaking. I also like that shibori pattern names help cement certain vocabulary in my mind. It’s a fun way to learn new nihongo (Japanese language). I decided to make a strip of hinode shibori- this on a fairly fine linen and dyed in the fermentation vat which is doing very well. This piece took about 7 dips into the vat while on the pole. And two more when it came to the moons.
The part to notice here is that the wrapping of the “suns” is done with one continuous thread, moving from one to the next by overwrapping at the base to maintain the tension. This also makes it easier to remove the thread after dyeing-it’s just less fussy. Another thing to note is the use of the double knotting at the end of each running stitch line. This allows you to put your finger inside the loop and easily pull hard away from the fabric to cut between the knot and the fabric without risking cutting the cloth.
It’s the little things…this was a suggestion that came up in the online shibori workshop with the JANM group last year. Always learning and refining…
I’m also working on other things in the background of course. More on that on the other blog soon. In the meantime, I’m ready to schedule a zoom for this group if anyone is interested. I’m just not sure what time or day is good for everyone here who would like to participate. Drop a comment with suggestions or requests please.
Mo is a long time collaborator from “down under” who does meaningful stitch work and often uses my moons. She recently saw a version of this disappearing moon that she wanted to use in a new piece for a friend who was just diagnosed with brain cancer.
Disappearing moon
I posted it on my SM pages with the thought that when we forget something, we have the opportunity to relearn it anew.
I did a little sped up version of my making her one as a gift…
I made it today, on February’s full moon, on old silk tsumugi- hand spun of course and hand woven. It’s full of silk moon memory. (Just FYI- this video does not have sound)
It is superfluous and it’s time to clean out the system. I did learn a lot from doing it and I thank those who tuned in in real time. Posts are no longer protected and I deleted most of the comments as well.
Maybe you will find something of use here until then.
I did this video to show you the base colors, their over dyed and whether or not they were discharged. Order was for a customer in the UK.
This was half of the order.
And the second half is done. Now on their way to the UK!
I was told by this customer, who supplies beads and items for stitchers, beaders, and jewelry makers that they had to delay placing this order for a couple of months due to the Swarovski crystal company ending sales of beads to craft supply companies to see how they were going to deal with it. Most of my ribbon customers buy and sell Swarovski as well. One thing affects another.
I’m going to have to backtrack a little bit at this point.
Let’s start with the more recent making of a pair of pocket squares for a custom order.
Indigo Pocket Squares
This video is just cut and pasted together with no edits to see if it helps eliminate size, upload issues etc. so far so good. It’s the pleating that gives it a fine shape.
Had a full week of aging animal issues, mental exhaustion, and better than imagined weather here. Spent time in the garden. I’ll be adding some of that over on the main blog.
A garden and dye related item- the indigo that wasn’t previously thriving is also enjoying the weather and I gave it a haircut.
BeforeAfter
The second pocket square is drying and I’ll photograph the two together over on SG in the next post.
After a couple of sessions of dyeing yardage I decided it was a good time to add some more indigo. I didn’t measure but I added about 1/4 of a 1 Lb bag-so approximately 4 oz.
After a couple of days…
How is your vat doing?
(Sorry, apparently this post’s video did not properly load. Am working on it…)
I have now deleted the original video and replaced it. Hopefully this will let everyone view it.
I saw a recently where someone had used artichoke leaves for dying cotton and linen. They got some beautiful greens using alum mordant so I decided to give it a try.
I had artichokes growing in the garden so picked a handful of them and simmered them for about an hour. I then added some silk and cotton along with some alum and simmered for another hour.
I didn’t get any green at all. The resulting fabric was all light yellow. And not a very strong yellow at that. So I resorted to adding some iron to the dye pot in the form of iron crystals. This resulted in a a light gray green.
Artichoke grey green with iron over alum.
I often see others trying out various natural dyes yet when I try them out I don’t get nearly the desired result.
the daily dyer 