thanks for the sweet comments about the scarves everyone. i had a wonderful time experimenting with colours and shapes making them.
spent the weekend at the cottage, where the entire lawn was covered in a blanket of forget-me-nots. i would never be able to choose a favorite flower, but forget-me-nots have captivated me since childhood. i've always thought that the centre of them looks like it's embroidered, which i think has always spoken to the stitcher in me.
and.....the winner of my first little giveaway is.........nicole! nicole, please write me at jusinden(at)gmail(dot)com, and let me know your snail mail details. thanks so much!
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!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
a little while ago, anabela sent me a link to this video thinking i would like it (and she was right). it's essentially a commercial for a clothing line, but the basic message does resonate with me.
i love the little silhouette of gandhi - it's not everyone that is so instantly recognizable by their silhouette. did you know that the first indian flag had a spinning wheel on it? it was the symbol of the independence movement, which was fought entirely non-violently and in great part through.......well, spinning.
i feel pretty lucky to make my full time living as a creator of handmade textiles.
thursday was the final night of the advanced natural dye class i tought at the workroom. one of the things we tried out was solar dyeing, and most of the gang combined it to be a bundling project as well. usually i don't do any dyeing myself in the class, but on the second week i joined in on wrapping up a bundle of fabric with some dyestuffs. we let them sit in the shop window in the sun for a week, and on thursday opened them up to unveil some beautiful colours.
bundling and solar dyeing are both as easy as they sound. if you've never done any dyeing at all before, it's a great easy way to begin playing around. simply lay out a piece of fabric, cover it with flowers, leaves, berries, whatever you think might give some colour (onion skins work wonderfully), then spray it all so that it's wet, roll or fold it up, then leave it in a sunny place a clear plastic bag or jar (full of water if you like). wait at least a week, and unroll to reveal! pre-mordanting the fabric will give you stronger, more washfast and lightfast colours, but this process is so easy and satisfying that the longevity of the colour needn't necessarily be the ulitmate goal.
my bundle contained some madder and osage (traditional dyestuffs), some onion skins, as well as a bunch of petals from various cut flowers that had just wilted at my house. it's birthday season where i live, so there was a fair variety, including hyacinth, tulip, renonculus and peony.
when i was in vancouver last week i made a trip to maiwa, which is where i buy many of my dye supplies. i normally buy from them online, but if in vancouver i definitely recommend a trip there - not only they have lots of stuff available that you can't buy through the website, but it's also a great excuse to make a trip to granville island, which is full of artist and artisan studios.
there were some vat dyes that caught my eye, and even though they're synthetic rather than natural, i bought a couple to experiment with. the idea with vat dyes is that you use a cloth that is already dyed, and the 'vat' first discharges the original colour, then lays another colour on top of it. i used some scarves that i had coloured a nice steel grey using just tannin and iron.
i was pretty pleased with the results, though i'm not really too keen on the crazy synthetic colours that resulted. i know that i could lessen the intensity of the shades, but instead i'm going to try to recreate a similar effect using natural dyes.
to contrast, i have these lovely soft colours, which i'm going to add some layers of colour to today. i know that i've been promising that i'd be opening my natural dye shop for weeks now, but i think that this week is really the one. for now, better get dyeing.....
sorry for the silence over here, but i ended up going on a last minute adventure to bc to celebrate my birthday with my friend cam, who shares the same birthday. every few years we get together to celebrate the day, last time it was in amsterdam (our birthday also happens to be a dutch national holiday, and huge party there), and this time it was on a boat in hot springs cove.
the innchanter is actually a bed and breakfast on a boat, owned by cam's lovely husband shaun. it's in clayoquot sound, an incredibly beautiful part of the country and only accessible by boat or float plane. a short kayak ride from the boat takes you to shore, where you can hike a 2km trail through the rainforest and end up at the hot springs. natural hot springs. overlooking the ocean. beyond incredible.
so, um.....we had a nice time. a really nice time. this was the sunset on our birthday:
incidentally, if you're looking for a lifestyle change, the innchanter is actually for sale. you can find out more here.
i received a small but exciting package in the mail today - the seeds that i had ordered for my dye garden this year. i got them from richters, a great seed company here in ontario that specializes in herbs - they have tons of medicinal herbs as well as the dye ones which i ordered.
i grew some weld a few years ago, and was thrilled with the yellow colour that i helped create, literally from the ground up. this year i decided to try a variety, including weld, coreopsis, golden marguerite, black hollyhock, dyer's broom and a few different kinds of indigo. i think i'm already a bit late for starting the indigo seeds, but i'm going to give it a go anyways.
i always find myself realising that i'm too late for starting seeds indoors - so many things seem to call for being begun 4-8 weeks ahead of outdoor planting, and i seem to miss this (probably because at that time it's usually still snowing, and it's hard to even imagine gardening yet). but this year i did manage to get some veggie seeds on the go, relatively early, and my studio window is delightfully full of little green sprouts right now.
