from the solar dye pot

I took these pieces out of the dye jars. I couldn't wait any longer; I figure a week is a good amount of time before things start to go smelly. 

The pinks are some silk, that seems to be tearing - perhaps age. One piece was wrapped with pomegranate seeds within it, the other had moss fallen from our tree (old mans beard?) and red /pink camellia flowers. Both were in the same jar with pomegranate skin, moss and a creek rock - mainly to weigh the fabrics down. The rock went a beautiful deep almost black colour.

The purple is from avocado skin. Also wrapped within the folds of the fabric was coffee and tea discards. I also put fire ash on top. This is hemp / organic cotton fabric that I had previously (as in a year+ ago!) stitched with silk thread. There are lovely little speckles from the coffee grains within the purple shades. And little bits of brownish as well. I did put some old rusty falling apart metal sheeting - not sure if that actually made much difference or not. 

I know that I put too many different things in one pot, to get clear conclusions of what gives what colour, etc. But as it's the first dyeing I've done for a while I was excited to just be putting things in. Now that I have some lovely, pleasing results (and not just mucky brown), I'm going to start being more methodical in my process. Here goes with the journalling.... 

*note: these pieces hung in the Winter sun for a full day, and faded quite dramatically. The were not pre- or post-mordanted at all. So, I'll be doing some more experimenting with what to use to keep the colour strong and not fade so easily. I've sent Sam into town searching for some alum.

tuesdays moments

+ i'm listening to Tiny Ruins - beautiful voice, music and sounds (especially for the head space i'm in right now)

+ i'm enjoying another cup of gen mai tea
+ i'm at my dads house, in the cold afternoon air
+ i'm looking forward to going down the hill to my house and lighting the fire and curling in for the night
+ i've been doing a little rejigging on my blog - do you read this in some reader form, head on over and check out the new set-up + pretty header image
+ i'm enjoying the quiet, slow, soft moments of the past few days with my family away and just the cat and me at home
+ the weather is continuing to be gloriously beautiful with clear clear blue skies and cold nights
+ the moon is slowly moving back to full again
+ i've been doing some small starts of some solar dyeing - some pieces of fabric folded into jars with assortments of things

i'm exploring experimenting adventuring and enjoying in a quiet way. i'm feeling a creativity slowly start back again, and learning to fit that into the quiet slow (busy) of the rest of my life. to work within what i have. i'm being inspired and encouraged that i'm not the only one.
*photos are an assortment from the past few days - from the proper big camera and the phone camera (including instagram images)