tutorial :: weaving on sticks and walks in nature

Teeny twiglet loom weaving using hand dyed silk thread.

For me, creating with my children is a natural extension of my own making and we do lots of crafting, but even I can be known to think of crafting with them as too annoying. Often we put crafting with children into the too hard basket because we think we don’t have enough time, it’s too messy, a perceived lack of skill, or it will be expensive.

I have some news to share with you – crafting with children can be as simple and beautiful as tying some yarn around a stick and hanging it in their bedroom window, or outside in a tree. Sitting beside you with your full attention is just as important as the project itself.

This is a simple weaving project which uses found and low cost or recycled materials. Children as young as three or four will enjoy being able to master the technique while older children and adults can make their designs more complex or personal. It's a great way to explore colour combinations and textural differences - it's fun to mix and match different wools, cottons, fabrics and found objects.

To start this project you’ll need some twigs or sticks. While paddle pop sticks will work, it’s much more fun, environmental and prettier if you use twigs collected from the backyard or a walk around your neighbourhood. Choose sticks that are not too thick but are strong enough they won’t break easily (eucalypts work well). If they have a wiggly shape or interesting details this will add to your finished piece. To make the most of spending time with your kids, think of the twig gathering as an activity in itself and enjoy the walk in the Winter sunshine, exploring and taking time to stop to look at things instead of the usual school-day attitude of hurrying curious children on. Take a gathering basket with you!

For our weaving we found some sticks with a natural fork in them, and used that as the edges of the loom. If you can’t find a forked stick you can create one by tying three sticks into a triangle. Your twigs can be as long as you like; experiment with different sizes, and shapes; try four sticks to make a square weaving loom.

For the weaving I use whatever yarn I can get my hands on, though I do prefer natural fibres. Children appreciate using beautiful crafting supplies – you will all enjoy the look and feel of interesting colours and textures. At markets and op-shops keep a look out for bags of wool, cottons or yarns. You can also make your own yarn using old sheets, fabric or t-shirts. I've also found, this Winter season, some very reasonably priced home-spun yarns at my local environment centre shop and craft shop.

Tie the warp thread tightly onto your twig, then wrap around and around to create your loom.

Once your warp thread is fully wrapped and tied tightly at the other end, start your weft thread (the yellow thread above) and weave under and over. Depending on the thickness of your stick, you may find this easier or harder to get a smooth finish.

What to do: Tie one end of the yarn to the bottom of one of the forks of your branch. Stretch the yarn across to the other fork and wrap it around once so you have bridged the thinnest part of your triangle. Take your yarn back to the first side and wrap around about 1-2cm above the first wrap (the thickness of your yarn will determine how far you make these strings/wraps). Continue wrapping the yarn between the two sides, until you get to the top of the fork. In weaving terminology you have now created the warp.

Then, taking a new length of yarn (called the weft) weave across the warp threads. Start by knotting your weft onto the bottom warp yarn and threading the yarn over one warp thread then under the next one, then over and so on. When you get to the end, reverse direction and take your weft back down going under the warp that you previously wove over and over the ones you went under.

You can change your weft colour to create patterns or a random effect. Tie each new weft colour yarn onto the previous colour or onto the warp so the whole lot won’t unravel. You might also weave in leaves, feathers, grasses or flowers you found on your walk; or ribbons, lace or other found string-like items. There are no rules. 

I used a needle as the shuttle for these tiny twiglets that I worked on. It was so much easier than pushing the weft through the warp. You can also use some flat cardboard with the end of your weft yarn taped to it; this helps kids have something to work over and under the warp threads, and then pull it all through. 

The more you practice, the more even your tension will be – which means that the weaving will be tight and firm, not too floppy and not pulled out of shape. My children and I are slowly filling the bare Winter branches of a special tree in our garden with hanging weavings and yarn wrapped twigs. It makes me smile each time I look at it, and I'm wondering what the kookaburras think of it all! I think one of the most important things about being creative is not if it’s perfect or neat, but if you feel joy in the making of and looking at it. And if you can share your making time with someone special you just might multiply this joy. It's important for children to learn that mistakes in creativity aren't a bad thing, and to be able to enjoy their artworks in all their wonky amazingness!

This one, made of op-shopped wools and fabric yarn, lives outside under our tree.

*This article was written for and published in my local newspaper, The Tweed Valley Weekly. I have made a few changes here, but barely any. Thanks also to my sister who edited this for me (for the paper - I don't generally have a blog editor.. though.. hmmmm). 

I can't wait to see your tree filled with yarn wrapped wonderful-ness. Please do share! Please contact me if you need any more pictures or extra info. {the children took over my creative space so the photo session was cut short......}..

I love the shadow play that was happening on the sunny day I was a-making. This makes me think of a weedy seadragon; one of my favourite of all animals is a sea horse.

{how to} naturally dyeing fabric with turmeric

The smell of turmeric on fabric takes me straight back to when my mother made fairy costumes for my sister and me. She dyed white singlets and endless swathes of tulle in a big pot of turmeric. I can't remember watching her making them, but I can remember that we both smelled like that wonderful spice for the whole party. What sweet flower fairies we were!

Lately the colours and designs coming from the turmeric dye pots is quite beautiful indeed. I thought I'd share my process with you, so you too can dye some pure golden sunshine.

Some notes before you start: remember that natural dyeing and some natural plant based dyes can be toxic. If you intend to boil and dye in your kitchen, please only do so in a well ventilated space and use a pot you won't be using for food purposes. Do some research before you head out foraging for plant material. Wear gloves to protect your hands from any chemicals or chemical reactions.

Also, the process of natural dyeing is such that results vary with materials and quantities used. You cannot expect to achieve perfection or repeat performances; you will instead be surprised and amazed each time you unfold your fabric - and that is better than perfection any day!

You will need:

Some plain undyed natural fibres. You can use linen, hemp, cotton, wool or silk. Silk is often the easiest to achieve brighter colours than plant based fibres; but you'll find through experiments that different fibres give different results. Use pieces of fabric, as well as lengths of yarn.

Turmeric powder, from your health food shop or the spice section of your supermarket. Find the brightest freshest powder you can find. 

White vinegar or alum (which can be found in a gardening shop - it's the chemical used to colour change hydrangea flowers), to use as a mordent.

A big saucepan, glass jars with lids, rubber bands, pegs, string.

:: 4L of water, 2 heaped tablespoon of alum, and 3 heaped tablespoons of turmeric.

To start with:

Soak your material in cold water, so that it is totally wet. This allows the dye to permeate all the way through. 

Half fill your pot with tap water. Add alum and turmeric powder. The amount of powder you use will depend on how much you are dyeing. I don't measure.

Bring the water to the boil, and add your wrung-out materials (you can strain off any un-disolved powder before adding your fabric, but I don't bother). At this stage you can either let it simmer on the stove top until the desired colour has been achieved, or you can fill your glass jars with the fabric and the dye water and place it outside in the sun to continue dyeing. This is called solar dyeing. 

I love solar dyeing as it gives you the chance of watching the colour develop over days to a week. You aren't using gas or electricity to dye your items, just harnessing the heat of the sun (you could even build a solar oven if you wanted to boil your water that way!). And those colour-filled jars sure look pretty sitting in your garden. (Just make sure the lid is tightly secured and your jars are away from children and pets). 

Once you are happy with your colour, rinse out the fabric. Hang to dry in the shade; your piece will fade in full sun. The alum helps to keep it colourfast, but most natural dyes will fade over time. Turmeric is sometimes a fugitive dye, which means it doesn't last as long as some other natural dyes; but I have found that some fabrics take the colour and keep it better than others, so testing your own fabrics is the best thing.

To achieve the different patterns on my fabrics I use the following techniques:

Shibori folding:

This is an age-old Japanese technique of folding or stitching fabric to achieve amazing patterns and shapes. This is an art-form in itself. At this stage, I have neither the time nor inclination to be stitching work just to unpick it (though I crazily admire those who do!), maybe one day I will...

For this pattern, I simply fold and continue to fold the fabric into squares onto itself. Then secure it tightly with pegs or clips along the edges, or wrap it with twine (which will also dye).

Dip dyed:

An easy and beautifully effective way of allowing the natural process of the coloured water moving up the fabric. This always reminds me of the marks left on sand by waves - you know that slightly transparent line left behind. Ombre continues to be popular - so why not try your hand at making mountain peaks. 

Start with one end of your fabric in the dye, and the rest hanging out. Leave for at least half and hour. Then slowly move the fabric down into the water a little bit more. Do this as many times as you want, each time leaving it for about half an hour in between. The amount of time you wait before you lower the fabric in, will determine how dramatic the colour change is. Being a natural dye, this process will not be as predictable as with chemical dye. 

Scrunch effect:

I simply tightly scrunch and then tie (with string that will become coloured as well) or peg the fabric. Place it into the glass bottle and cover with dye. Put a stone on top to weigh it down if need be. Leave this for at least a few days, without agitating or moving it about. The dye will settle into different sections of the scrunch to create the marks; if you move it too many times it won't be as dramatic pattern.

Please share with me if you doing any dyeing. Would love to see your results. Please email me if you have any questions at all.

new monkey-play (with easter eggs in pretty foils)

Can I tell you how sad I was to find out that Picnik was packing up it's pretty little rug and shooing away the ants. I relied on Picnic to make my blog headers and other little bits and pieces for online editing. Was easy, simple, quick and do-able with no long training videos or downloads.

So - it was with much excitement that I read on Kimono Reincarnate's blog about a new site called PicMonkey. I jumped straight on to have a try. EASY easy I tell you, and fun and so much excellent stuff there.

Currently there is no collage option, which is what I liked about Picnik, but they say coming soon. So I can wait.

Go check it out for yourself. These are some of the fun edits I did - the heart / arrow one being my favourite, probably because I don't generally go in for that myself though *heart* it when someone else does it....

colour playing

I just found this, from a link on Pinterest. I really do learn so much from Pinterest - don't you!!

How to generate your own colour palette from an image. I don't use photoshop - but if you do, then you probably already know how to do this is. If you don't - then visit here for the tutorial, then here to get to the color palette generator.
So much fun. I'm addicted already. I have seen these around the web, but never knew how to do it. Yah!
{The image does have to be online - but all my good ones are mostly on flickr or my blog or instagram(search petalplum) anyway - so that's no worry for me.....}. 

hem

I just found this link from Voodoo Rabbit blog, with some simple and great little tips on how to hem your clothing. Check it out if you want some new ideas on how to finish the edges. Unless, like me, you just keep them raw because you're too lazy to bother finishing up that last little bit to make your new skirt or dress look perfect! (seems I'm not the only one, so that's okay).

 

My favourite is a faced hem, but with a really big facing, which means you have the hem stitch line about 5+cm above the hemline. I like the look of it, as it's a bit different to the regular 1/2cm (or less) of most seams. Bit designery, no? That's how I finished this skirt hem.

{Bound Hem}

{Faced Hem}

*All images used with thanks from Craftzine.