over the long weekend, my very very helpful super duper mom and aunt helped me skein up a bunch of the wool that i've been dyeing here and there over the spring. i spent this afternoon photographing everything, and now it's all available in my shop.
all of the yarn is 100% superwash merino wool and dyed with either plant or insect dyes. it's a beautifully soft yarn, and the perfect gauge for a variety of projects.
unknowingly, i had dyed up a real rainbow of colours, so i couldn't help taking a bunch of shots of the wool arranged as such.
i'm getting ready to go to the states for a wholesale show in a few couple weeks (with my hats, my full-time gig), and have been busy preparing. it's going to be my first wholesale experience so i'm a little nervous, and hope that i have the right answers to any questions. i'm also struggling to create a booth that i can fit in my suitcase....
we had a little photo shoot the other night with some of my newer products, the ever-adorable rosalyn as model, and my fabulous housemate aube as photographer. we started with a bunch of shots of hats, but we had been struggling to come up with a good way to get photos of my mittens that wouldn't be just a static shot of hands or the mittens on a backround. and so.....
kind of ridiculous. but i love it. now it feels like it needs to be some kind of animation. which is clearly not going to happen. but still.
one of my favorite shots from the night is also my new favorite product, this braided scarf:
super mega-thanks to aube and roz!
figured i would pop in quickly and answer the two questions that came from the last post, here, rather than in the comments sections.
nicole asked about the daily stirring - concerned that it would introduce oxygen into the vat, which is of course exactly what you're trying to avoid. i do what my instructor in art school taught me, and what i saw a very experienced indigo dyer in japan do - stir in a circular motion with a (very long) spoon that reaches to the bottom of the pot. this way, the spoon is mixing up the sludge that has settled at the bottom (which is the point of the stirring - to reintroduce the mix into the water to allow the chemical reactions to continue happening). and as you stir you begin to create a whirlpool - not only does this mix things up fairly aggressively without adding too much oxygen, but once you have a flower forming, the whirlpool helps to bring the flower back together into the centre of the vat.
i agree with margie that it's good to do your stirring at the same time each day - then it just becomes part of your regular daily routine. i do mine first thing in the morning - feels like a little check-in to see how they're doing....
and heleen asked if it was possible to use a big plastic bucket to make a vat in, which it definitely is. you can use any type of vessel you like. preferably one with a lid, to help keep both the air out and the smell in. currently both my natural fermentation and my zinc-lime vats are in 5 gallon plastic pails, the kind that a contractor or painter might use.
the main consideration when choosing a vessel is what you're going to dye. i had my fermentation vat in a smaller container (a stock pot), but then when i would dye large skeins of wool, the wool was too big and would touch the sediment at the bottom of the pot, mixing it all up, which you don't want to do while dyeing. your goods will not only get a bunch of unreduced indigo on them, which will make them look darker blue than they are but will then wash off when you rinse (and waste the indigo), but once the liquid gets too stirred up, you have to stop and let the sediment settle again, which takes at least two hours. so choose a vessel that is big enough that your fibres can go into it without touching the bottom two inches or so of the vat.
the other consideration is keeping the vat warm - the advantage of a stock pot or other metal vessel is that you can just plunk it on the stove to warm it up. but this time of year your vat shouldn't need any additional warming - summer room temperature will be more than enough. however come winter, a plastic vat will be harder to keep warm, and alive.
there's many wonderful photos of indigo dyers in warm climates, who have their vats built right into the ground, like this man in india:
photo from here
after nicole posted some lovely photos of herself wearing the solar dyed scarf she won in my giveaway, a few of you wrote to ask if there were any more available. so i've been bundling and waiting, bundling and waiting, and have just listed a few solar scarves in my shop.
the process requires a bit of patience, since the dyes are set with only the heat of the sun, and so need to be left to 'cook' for at least a week or so. but it's so satisfying to open the bundles up for the big reveal. as per usual, i don't feel like my photography skills do the colours and details in the patterns justice, but i'm working on it.....
kind of obsessed with the solar dyed bundles right now. i was really pleased with the results from the one i did at the workroom,
so i put a few more together last week, and just opened them up yesterday. i'm making a bunch of shibori scarves for a couple of my retailers, so i'm also going to put on some more bundles for them as well.
my favorite is this one, where i used some cochineal bugs that i had already used to make a dye extract with, some blackberries, and a little bit of osage. i love the peach and purple together, and how a design is formed where the fabric was folded over on itself.
i did another one with blackberries which got all mouldy. not exactly sell-able anymore, but the designs produced by the mould were actually quite beautiful, even if there's not really anything i can do with this one.
and finally there's with onion skins. i like the way it turned out, but feel like it needs a little something more. that's one of the things that i love about dyeing, is how you can continually add layers of colour (and texture) by overdyeing. i've had times where i was completely dissatisfied with the way something turned out, but then overdyed it to become a favorite. i think i'll bundle this one back up with some more, new dyestuffs.
very excited to tell you that my shop full of naturally dyed wares is now open. you can find it here.
the shop is mostly full of the shibori scarves i've been experimenting with - they're all 100% organic cotton, lovely and lightweight and perfect for spring and summer.
to celebrate, i'm going to do my first ever giveaway, and offer up this solar dyed scarf that i talked about two posts ago. it's the one currently on my blog header.
to qualify to win, please visit my shop, then leave a comment here telling me which is your favorite scarf. since it's a long weekend here in canada, i'll keep this open until tuesday at noon.
you can also still always find me at www.juliesinden.com.
and now......i'm heading to the cottage. happy long weekend everyone!
