More ornaments

Here are a few more ornaments.

Mittens by Jessica

David's Sled

Another by David

Jessica's Heart

Jessica's gingerbread girl

Fall leaves - eco dyeing

I am currently allowing several jars of leaves to batch on my porch. Monday will make 2 weeks. I plan on straining the liquid and preparing the fabric for dyeing then. Here are a few preparation pictures. I used japanese red maple (these had not turned all the way), sugar maple, various oak leaves, as well as sumac leave and berries.

1st compost dye project

Not wanting to waste anything I decided to do a compost project with the grape hyacinth flowers strained from the dye.   Picked leaves and flowers from outside and placed them on a piece of fabric soaked in soda ash.








Then I sprinkled the grape hyacinth over it in clumps.  Next I sprinkled a bit of tealeaves.  I also added a rusty circle. ( had to bend it in half to roll up)

It was already turning a lovely shade of green.  I dug a hole next to one of my rose bushes and covered with leaf litter and dirt.  Now how long can I wait to dig it up.  (Hopefully til fall)

 Photographed so I would remember where I buried it -( in front of orange roses and paper whites)

Pounding leaves for color

Here are a few pieces of fabric I pounded with a hammer and fall leaves inside. 

Leaf Dyeing -part 3

The darker cloth in this set had been previously rust dyed on chicken wire with results much to faint.  The rust reacted with the tannin in the leaves and gave a nice purplish color.

 Before washing

 After Washing and ironing

 

Waiting to dry and annoying my family!

a few more ironed cloth pieces

Part 1 Leaf Dyeing

This is the first post in my leaf dyeing experiments.  The first thing I did,  after collectiny my leavers, was to press them between the pages of a large phone book over night.  Then I spread them out on fabric that had been soaked in soda ash as a mordant.  I misted the fabric and laid the leaves down.  Next I covered them with a second cloth. rolled the cloths into bundles and tied them.  Here are pictures of the lovely colorful leaves.

Study in Reds

Sycamore Leaves

Leaf Bundles

        As you can tell from my photos, I started out with various kinds of fabrics and colors of cloth. I used cotton and linen fabrics.  One of the cottons was dyed  previously in dry Black-eyed Susan heads. Another had been rust dyed on chicken wire but the print was too faint.  I was hoping for a little reaction from the rust and the tannin in the leaves.
Result pictures coming soon.