Natural Dye ~ the magic of creating colour from botanical materials {a workshop}

Lately I've gotten right back into my natural dye making, and it's making me happy and excited and eager to be at the dye pot as many days as I can. I'm stretching myself, and learning new things and discovering new colours. I'm also learning to take note and write it all down - not like my usual 'oh, I'll remember that..'. A dye journal - that's what I need to make happen.... perhaps tomorrow. 

All this new colour magic making has me wanting to share what I know and have learnt. Hence some upcoming Natural Dye workshops. Oh golly - I'm really excited about these. About gathering with people and seeing the look in their eyes when they make colour on fabric and yarn from simple plant materials. Oh yes, oh yes! It really is that much fun. It makes me sort of giggly sometimes... And I want to show everyone who comes nearby - though my family sort of doesn't have quite the same enthusiasm as other natural dyers would.. though they do try hard to be happy for me too.

So, I have an upcoming Natural Dye and Wearable Weaving workshop as part of the gather :: create events I'm co-hosting with Leah. It's about spending time discovering the beauty of creativity within the little nuances of exploration.

Taking garden, kitchen and road-side findings we will create some magic in the dye pots and discover the joy of dyeing fabrics and threads with the natural alchemy of botanical colours. I enjoy using hot and cold dye methods to create colour, and delight in the finished cloth. My easy to learn ways of working with natural plant dyes is something you can take home and continue experimenting with to create your own colours and variations of patterns.

After a full morning (well, half a day) of working with the colour pots and turning white fabric and yarn into a rainbow of hues, we will take those threads and weave ourselves a pretty wearable neckpiece. I am a self-taught weaving, drawing upon my childhood memories of weaving as my source of inspiration, and can't wait to share these easy workable ways of taking scraps and threads of fabric and making an art work for your wall or to adorn your body. I prefer to work with a flexible approach to my making, to discovering what can be done and not having to follow rules - to make up my own way of working. To share this way of making with you will be an honour - to help you tap into your own innate sense of creating is what our gather :: create events are about.

Natural plant dye is about more than just making colour on cloth, it's about the environmental aspect of our clothing and our textiles. It's about thinking about how our fabrics are made, and where our colours come from. It's about learning to appreciate the beauty in the softer colour palette, or how to up the colour hue with some simple modifyers. Natural plant dyes seem to always fit together as a range - with a beautiful way of melding and colours flowing into each other. The process develops patterns on the fabric that are often not easily replicated, and to be enjoyed for their one-off amazingness.

Our day will also involve delicious and beautiful food, as well as new friend making, and interesting conversations. To connect with other makers is such an important part of being a creative, and to be able to share a journey of learning and making alongside others brings a sense of togetherness in a unique way. 

 

We have one workshop in Melbourne and one in Brisbane. (click those links for details and booking info). 

just this

I pulled these from the dye pots this afternoon. These are the ones I put in only a few days ago - yet already such great colour.

Photo is dark and grainy, as it's dark and rainy here! (hehe - that was a funny little play on words, hey...).

The blue is from red cabbage with salt. What an excellent colour. The last red cabbage jar I dyed was purple. Did you know red cabbage is a ph indicator. I think the salt may have changed the colour a bit. My dad said it looks like denim, then he told me why denim is called denim. Do you know why? Well - it comes from a man in France who was the first to make the fabric, he named it after the city de Nimes, hence it became de-nim. You can read about it on wikipedia if you don't believe my dad, but I know that my dad really does know a thing or two!

And the little rock up top was from the blue dye pot as well - it's gone a dark and mysterious hue. 

The grey is from the rusty nail and eucalyptus brew. Some pieces are linen, some are hemp - creates different depths of colour on different fabrics.

The orange/brown is from coffee - what a good colour. I really do like it a lot! Every time there's coffee left over in our morning coffee pot, Sam saves it in a jar for me. I do think it would be much deeper and stronger if the fabric was in there for longer. And it's had no mordanting - so I don't know how colour/sun fast these pieces will be.

Anyway. The kids are having a sleep over, and I'm still doing final prep for tomorrow's market. It's dark and cold and rainy, and I want to sit in front of my fire and crochet....

What are you up to this weekend? Do have fun fun won't you! xxx

threads - kinda sorta really lovin' these

just made some little pouches using bits of fabric scraps. oh - don't you just love fabric scraps!!!

and messy stitches. how can you go wrong with messy stitches, raw edges, and that delicious peachy-pink thread on the natural hemp.

but boy-oh-boy. super super lovin' it on the grey-ish pieces.
i dyed these pieces in a solar-dyeing bottle of rust and eucalyptus. um - love love!

i'm off back to my solar pots to add these natural linen and hemp pieces into some coffee and some red cabbage. can't wait to see how they look after a few days / week in the dye.

these little pouches are for my crochet stones - little nests, safe carrying places. these will be available for sale at the Sew & Tell market this Saturday. i'm so excited to launch my rock collection (small as it is at the moment, due to those cut fingers and big bandaids!!).

come and check them out, won't you?

scraps of time, scraps of fabric

I've been spending precious moments in my "studio space" lately. Mostly to do online research and work (and yes, real work - not pinning and such!..... well, not much anyway).

I've gathered up some of the fabric scraps and pieces I have in my fabric boxes. All my hand screen printed organic fabrics. They are now in little bundles just ready to post off to your sewing machines, hand needles, or crafting spaces. Oh - golly. What would you make with these delicious scraps.

Lately I've been making lots of bits with my fabric scraps. Tiny purses and bags. My girl made a sweet little handbag for herself over the holidays, and my boy made the funkiest belt.

Isn't this the most beautiful sewing machine. I don't think she works. She doesn't belong to me, but I know my sister really won't mind me piling her up with fabric for a pretty photo or two. With that moment of afternoon sunshine gleaming in.

I've decided to start a little Studio Scrap Challenge. Are you up for it? Pop on over to purchase one of my scrap packs and start some making. The competition starts now, and runs until the end of August. There's a Red Seed Studio $50 gift voucher for the winner - we'll have a general voting so its all fair. What do you think?

the blues, leafwork & a giveaway

Yesterday I mixed up a most delicious blue ink for some screen printing. Oh I do so love it. It dried just perfectly perfect. Don't you like it when things go just right like that.
I'm still deciding on a name for the colour - naming colours can be fun, but hard. I don't want to be all silly and 'arty', but fun and descriptive. Some paint names I see, on paint chips, are so silly don't you think! Tell me the best you've ever heard.

Some experimenting with the designs at the moment. Printing on the kitchen table, using an old sheet/blanket that I mum made for me an eon ago. I like using it, and remembering that she sewed it for me to take on my overseas journey. Now I use it for a new journey - and I'm adding good ink splotches to it too.

I thought I had a free week this week to do some fun exploring and work with fabric and ink and such, but suddenly, just today, it got busy. I'll try to slip in a spot of printing again - but not sure. I also have a sewing project that a friend asked me to do, that I need need need to get done.

Anyway - here's what came out from the screen yesterday. Some of it anyway. Some bits were mistakes, and they're the best bits. But I haven't photographed them yet. I'm trying to decide what to make with these pieces, they are smallish test bits, but I think I'll make some more of similar design in bigger sizes.
The best bit that came out of the screen yesterday was the doing of it - I haven't done any printing for a few months again now. So getting back into it was good good good.

I've decided to give away one of these pieces. It's about A4 size or so, maybe a bit bigger (it's not beside me right now, I'm at the town library - so I can't measure it). Tell me - what would you make with this piece of delicious organic cotton / hemp hand screenprinted goodness. Leave a comment to enter to win a piece. I'll draw sometime next week, maybe Monday morning.

{this is called 'lacework/leafwork', and I'm thinking of calling the ink colour smoked teal - you can't really tell in these images, but it's a deep blue almost like a cyanotype}.

{love} the Nani Iro double gauze wedding quilt

 I so enjoyed making this. Every single part of it; from choosing the fabrics, and receiving it in the post, to designing and cutting and sewing. Then laying it out on our bed, deciding on how best to 'quilt' it, what stitching lines, etc.

I use the term 'quilt' quite loosely. As this doesn't have any intricate 1/8th of inches measurements or design fancies like that. And there's no binding - that is still something that is beyond my mental process abilities; though I do have feelings that if I just sat down and did it, then the binding wouldn't be too much of an issue - just have to leap that wall in my head telling myself it's too hard!

I used a bamboo + cotton batting, which is really soft, not too thick. This isn't a deep Winter snowing country quilt; more like a light Autumn / Spring NZ weather quilt. 

It was Sam's suggestion of the slightly waving lines of quilting, rather than straight lines following the straight rectangles of fabric. It's good having someone around to help with things like that - who looks at things properly (rather than a fleeting glance), and thinks about it. It wouldn't have worked with straight lines, the waves are exactly what this quilt needed. 

Working with the Nani Iro is so so so lovely. I could have done basically anything with these designs and colours and it would have been beautiful. The whole collection of fabrics I bought are simply divine (except this one, which was a totally different colour in real than on screen, and I'm not sure I can use it for anything - perhaps I'll overdye it at some later stage). The double gauze is soft, buttery, luscious, delicious; it's beautiful beautiful beautiful to feel, to snuggle up to. 

The only one 'thing' (problem/issue?) with the double gauze that I found was the top piece of fabric/layer (each piece of fabric is two layers of gauze, hence the name "double gauze", and I sewed two pieces of fabric together, which meant four layers of gauze) slipped forward while I was sewing. My feed dog obviously took the bottom piece of fabric, while the top piece clung slightly to my machine foot and didn't move along at the same pace.* This meant that there were little puckers at the end of each seam (as the fabric on the top slipped so it was longer than the fabric underneath); but I think they didn't matter too much, in the end. And the little puckers will only add to the beauty of the quilt, as it ages and washes and puckers more and more; won't it!

While sewing this, for my dear friend's wedding gift, I remembered things about our growing up together. The plays and performances and shows and art works and stories and feuds and making up and teenager-hood and growing and learning together. Becoming parents at similar times, though on the other side of the world to each other, being able to find our similarities and remember our childhoods together. 

That's what makes a quilt isn't it. The reasons why, and the memories, and the because, and the love. So, really, I can call this a quilt, rather than a throw or a blanket or something else. It's layers of beautiful fabric {our life} stitched together with thread {memories, love, tears, laughter, loss, growth}, and squashed around soft batting to keep us warm, cosy and loved. 

*You know when you're on one an escalator and the bit you're standing on goes slower than the bit your hand is resting on; you end up slightly pulled in your body - arm forward, legs with the rest of your body.

**I'm having issues with blogger saying that I've used up my free photo space (on PicasaWeb Album). Does anyone have hints on how to easily/quickly upload photos from Flickr in a batch. I only know a stupidly tedious way.......

More photos over here - if you want to see all the beautiful close ups that my new camera takes. 

I need your advice fabric people.....

This is a plea for help. I'm planning the making of a very special gift for a friend who is getting married very early next year. {If you are that friend, and you are reading this now. STOP reading right now. And some back another day!!}.

I want to make her a special quilt, but I'm not really a quilt making person - so am thinking more a simple bits of fabric sewn together into a blanket shape style of quilt. None of this 1/8th of inches or anything like that. Anyway, where you come in is :: this buying fabric online is all good and well, but it's also really hard to put fabrics up next to each other and see how the colours and tones and patterns all work together. There's only so much swapping from web page to web page trying to visualise it.

Please let me know if you think these look beautiful together. Or just okay. Or no good at all. They're all Nani Iro double gauze - I'm aiming to make a light-weight Spring / Autumn quilt. I'll put 100% cotton batting inside (I think??). 

Of course the layout wouldn't be like this, it's just for ease of mocking something up quickly {with a child on my lap and another at my side wanting to touch the screen}.

The more I look at this collection, the more I'm liking it. I think I have some grey + white spots in double gauze at my studio that I could add, or perhaps use as the backing. (But the studio's at another location, so I can't check what's there or not). I'm limited to only being able to buy from Australian (online) shops, and my local shops didn't even know what/who Nani Iro was. {I tell you, I was aghast at that, and will not be visiting that shop - I rang them up to ask information before dragging the kids across town}.

Please send me any other ideas of what I can add to the mix, as perhaps just those three fabrics won't be enough for visual interest in a double size quilt. I'm wondering if this or this might work, but they are both only single (not double) gauze, and I'm not sure if that will work, or I'll have to buy extra and layer them when I sew. And I really like this, but think perhaps it's a bit too dirty white.

I'm waiting for all your words of wisdom. And will not be ordering anything until I have your approval. Oh yes, fabric loving friends - I have total trust in you being able to solve my selection dilemmas.

{my creative space} stacks and layers and piles of beautiful fabric

My creative space over the next few weeks will include stacks and layers and piles and stitches and lots of beautiful beautiful fabric. and screen printing, too. and cutting and sewing. and organising. and deciding. {all for this reason}.

These are some extraordinarily beautiful pieces of vintage Japanese Kimono silks and cottons. Scraps and off-cuts, all tidily rolled into unassuming bundles. These will be curated into little zippered purses and a new version of the Cumulus Clutch. And perhaps, only perhaps, if I have time some cushion covers as well.

But for now it's all about picking and choosing and layering and deciding which colours and designs and patterns match best together, or clash best together as the case may be. I'll show you the finished results once they're done.

These little piles of orange glowing loveliness are for some new skirts in the collection. I cut them before we went on holiday, and will be picking them up from my sewer/machinist in a few days (when I drop her off some more work). oh.i.do.love.having.a.sewer to help me out; more time for me to design and create, rather than unpicking fussy and disobedient zips!

The orange is a Japanese cotton with sweet little leaves and blossoms. Combined with the black hemp/organic cotton. Sewn into a simple cut. Easy to wear - I've been wearing my sample for the past week.

Head over to Kootoyoo for some more creative peeps. 

frocks, wraps and fabric lengths, works on paper and sterling silver pieces

If you are in the area, this is sure to be a beautiful exhibition to see.

India Flint's amazing eco-dyed and hand worked pieces - as she calls them frocks, wraps and lengths of fabric. You can view some of her work over on her website; but let me tell you - seeing it in real is just so very interesting and inspiring. To stop and look at the depth in the fabric, the colours and movement and stitches. Her work looks like little pieces of the landscape.

In conjunction with India's fabrics, there will be some jewellery pieces by Marianne Hall, and Roz Hawker's finely stitched intricately worked fabric pieces.

I met Roz while in New Zealand earlier this year; she had spent the previous year slowly and quietly stitching, almost as a meditation and a journey. The results of that year (in a different country with little-to no family) are simply awe-inspiring. Quite hard to describe the feeling of quiet that comes over you when you look at the cloth with her teeny tiny fairy-like stitches. {Of course, I didn't actually manage to take any photos of her work while in NZ; so I hope to show you some after this exhibition}.

Saturday September 18th, 5 - 8pm. 22 Blue Hills Drive, Bunya,Qld.

There is a 5-day workshop with India to follow; which I really wish I could attend. {But lots of other things happening, and you know - kids to look after and stuff like that. So, I hope those who are going have a wonderfully marvellous time}.

* all images used with thanks from India Flint's website. Visit her blog as well.

Fabric SALE

Just wanted to let you know that I've finally sorted out the left over fabrics from Selvedge House. {for those of you who don't know what I'm on about, read this bit of news}.

If any of you are interested in getting some beautiful Australian designer fabric, let me know. I have started listing some on my Etsy store, but will take me a while to get it all up. In the meantime I thought I'd let you know what I have on offer.

Ink & Spindle - linen / cotton

It's mostly all fat 1/4s  - approx 45cm X 45cm (though really closer to 50cm x 50cm).
~ Wrens :: Charcoal on natural :: Charcoal on black
~ Acacia Charcoal on natural
~ Lace Fans Charcoal on black linen
~ Sumor :: Charcoal on black linen :: Charcoal on natural
~ Chalk Orange on white
~ Bloem :: Charcoal on natural :: Red on natural
~ Rooftops :: Charcoal on natural :: Snow on natural

Pippijoe - hemp + linen fabrics 

~ Pebbles red on white hemp / cotton {really beautiful texture} (45 cm x 50cm)
~ Buds red on natural hemp {thick weight, with an open weave} (50cm x 39cm)
~ Laundry Birds Black on white linen / cotton (45cm x 50cm)
~ Waterhen black on natural hemp (37cm x 50cm)

Danielle Stewart Designs
~ Protea green or aqua on natural linen / cotton (45cm x 60cm panel print, so has extra border unprinted)
~Poppies red on natural linen / cotton (same size as above)

All these fabrics retail for between $15 - $25AU (depending on size or fabric). I'm selling them all for only $10AU each. Some I have only 1 -2 left, others I have more than that, so please just ask me.

If you want any extra info or more photos, please contact me {redseedstudio AT gmail DOT com}. I can make a custom listing on Etsy, or just send you a PayPal invoice.

I'll work postage out for you, and get the best deal possible through Aust Post - can ship anywhere across the globe or city.