Using my dyed threads at last for embroidery

 Finally getting around to posting something again......the real problem has been the photo quality: getting colours right is not so easy so i tend to give up. And colour is important! especially for embroidery.

Anyway here is my first go at embroidery using my dyed wool threads.  It's based on my own  photo of Buðir on Snæfellsnes.

you get an idea anyway of my slapdash methods.  

The blacks and darkish greys for the building and basalt walls are from liriope berries (a very lucky dye lot! usually get prussian blue shades from the liriope), the grass is purple onion skin caught early so it is quite an acid chartreuse green. 

Most of the threads are the Empire 2 ply (Morris & Sons) which works really well for embroidery. i used some thick sewing thread for the fine lines of the the church wood panneling. I've used a linen seviette from an op shop as my base fabric. There are lots of them to be found for around $1.

Natural Dyeing with mistletoe and prunus leaves

On our playdays we have started experimenting with dyeing fabric and wool using leaves, flowers and twigs that we collect around about......mostly in Sydney but i have bought back stuff from my fieldwork area as well.

I've become obsessed with dyeing 1 & 2ply bought wool yarns, as i don't farm sheep or spin, (yet!). (The ply rating is an australian term, equivalent to lace weight and cobweb elsewhere, which i find too vague).

The wool and silk dye beautifully, but its all quite variable depending on the type of wool fibre, how it has been prepared, when the dye material is collected and how long the dyeing process is. This means that pretty much every batch is different to some degree.

                  Fascinating.
                                         Endless fun.
                                                                  Bucket chemistry.

I do label everything, but otherwise it's all slapdash at this stage because it's fun that way.

I have been trying to make good photos that show the true colours, but so far it doesn't work with the point-and-shoot very well. These photos are the best i've come up with.


Ist mistletoe experiment

Mistletoe, dry fallen leaves collected in autumn

The mistletoe is common alongside the road from Barraba to Bingara in NSW. Barraba is where Merlene has her Fibre Shop (see the earlier posts about that). At this stage in the experiments I'm only using an alum mordant, sometimes with cream of tartar. I'm also using rainwater from the parents' concrete tank, which might be neutral or ever so slightly alkaline, and doing the simmering in stainless steel pots. The mistletoe leaves were a dark red/brown like the colour of the wool, so this one worked very well! It was the 3rd simmer for this hank, with the pot topped up with some 'fresh' leaves each time. Morris & Son Empire 2ply, 100% merino.

2nd mistletoe experiment

I then collected more mostly fresh leaves in late winter/early spring. The leaves looked lovely - bright red in the sunshine, so i was very hopeful.......into the pot they went, but i got some different results!

Mistletoe, mostly fresh early spring leaves

Firstly note the change of colour in the bottom hank compared to the image above of the same. That's the problem with the colour reproduction. i think the real colour is actually somewhere between the two.

• the top hank is alum + cream of tartar, Beautiful Silks 1 ply merino, 1 simmer
• the middle hank is alum + C of T, Dairing 2ply merino, 2nd simmer
• bottom hank is the one from the first experiment to show the relative differences

Mistletoe samples showing the range of colours

 This picture shows more of the range of colours from all the various combinations of wools and leaves and simmers.....

• the one on the far left is Icelandic einband and the colour is a very clear bright yellow. it was almost fluro when it came out of the pot! i'll get more of this on my next trip, even though it is probably closer to our 4ply weight i love it for its texture.

Experiments with prunus leaves

The dark purple flowering plum is quite popular as a street tree in various parts of sydney. I've collected batches from 3 differnt places during the last spring season and so far and they all give different results...... sadly only a few reasonably representative photos so far. The colours range from the almost grey- prussian blue below, through the lighter grey-mauve to delicious bluey-greens that i haven't been able to capture yet in the photos.i'll keep trying.

Prunus, purple leaves collected in spring

• The outside hank is Empire 2ply with leaves from the trees in Sun Valley in the Blue Mountains were my sister lives
• the centre hank is the remainder of the einband in the same pot
• both with alum & C o T.

Other plants
I have lots of purple-leaved plants in my garden and have started using alternathera, ipomea, purple tradescantia and in September i collected indigofera australis from Mum's new native plantings.I'll try the recipe that can be found in the Turkey Red Journal.

i've also got some stunning very strong rusty oranges from a grey-leafed ironbark. The pale bluey-grey-green leaves give a really outstanding colour and a lovely smell to the wool. When boiling the leaves the eucalyptus smell goes through the whole house. yummy.

Other plants used include grevillea robusta flowers (gave a yellow), illawarra flametree flowers (vibrant red flowers gave only a very soft buttery colour). Purple onion skins gave a greeny colour.

A visit to Merlene's Fibre shop

Merlene has her wonderful shop in Barraba,

 (1 hr NW of Tamworth on the Fossicker's Way). She grows the sheep, spins the wool and then dyes it with natural materials. THEN if she has time left over she knits-up wonderful things, along with 4 other ladies. Jumpers to die for......in delicious earthy tones. The bright pink-magenta hank showing in the photos below is from lichen collected on her farm. The blue from chlorophyll. And most of the other colours are from onion skins and eucalyptus varieties........
(Rhonda & I will be doing some more experiments this weekend using leaves and bark from my favourite tree,  E. sideroxylon (mugga ironbark), and some lichen Merlene gave me!)

 The hands of Merlene demonstrating a simple spinning technique using a bent coathanger. Nifty, and it almost has got me interested in doing it myself........but where to find the time?????

and a couple of shots inside the shop

lovely lovely lovely fibres

a treasure trove of inspiration

Find it in Barraba, on the main street and enjoy

and now a gratuitous shot of gorgeous icelandic sheep - a mother and her teenagers looking exactly the same

these sheep are so funny to see, they love to be outdoors and hate round-up time. they come in an amazing array of colours too.

a play day

it  finally happenned: A & R had planned to get down to some dyeing experimenting for a looooong time and on saturday we got down to business! G joined in.

We used 4 different dyes as our first adventure:

              1 red onion skins - simmered

2 coffee - simmered

  3 avacado - simmered

                                                             4 chlorophyll (a gift from Merlene, of the Fibre shop in Barraba. A plug for a wonderful lady and an inspiring shop in a small country town nw of Tamworth. 'Do yourself a favour.....')

mordant: alum

R worked with a few different silks and produced some wonderful pieces:

but the best one came out at the end of the evening:

don't know why it comes out sideways - all the others are right way up!

this silk was done in red onion with the spinner gum leaves laid in it, rolled up and then tied with string. 6 hrs in the hot dye bath. the blue sample next to it is the chlorophyll - an intense blue on silk! a sky blue on G's cotton pieces.

I worked with wool samples as i want to dye some larger quantities of 1 ply to get shades of more natural colours than the ones in the shops which are all either strongly variegated or strong plain colours:

my samples ready to pop into the dye baths

i forgot to take pictures of the results - next time!

the coffee came out quite pale; the onion came out lovely shades of limey olive green. both darker if left in longer......

greta doing some drawing practice

 

    

and then my other experiment using the 'bus-sticks' i've been collecting. they are small thin straight pieces of steel that i find on the roads around Sydney.....

i've packed the piece in wet mulch in a plastic box and i am keeping it on my car dash in the hot sun for a month to see what happens