japanese maple

This lovely tree has held onto its leaves for a long time …  they are lovely on paper and silk or just to ponder … as is my magnolia, lichen and much loved eucalyptus.

a little twining

Keeping my fingers nimble ….. with a little tissue silk with lichen that I unbundled at Arts in the Olives

from this

to this

silk squares

The pot had 2 hours on the stove and at the last minute I put in a couple of slices of purple carrot from the crisper (not my garden) but well past it’s use by date and put a couple of stands of lichen from a brew that is looking very Purple ! The baking paper did not stop the seeping as I thought it would …  I am very happy with the results….. I may have to make some bigger ones and start a quilt! The Euc Perriniana must need more time and may be better on wool as it did not really show out .

lichen

In my haste to let you all know about the new leaves I found, I forgot that I had used the lichen that had been brewing for some time. I dyed two skeins of wool and the silk gilet that I made, this gilet is shorter than the others and has quiet a bounce to it. I could not resist the urge to bundle it with some leaves ……quandong and some acacia from WA (a friend works at Telfer mine )

wool

jar of lichen and ammmonia

bundle ready to go

drained lichen

unwrapped

only a little pink

lovely marks

lovely marks

more lichen

The other type of lichen around my home is this flat one that grows on rocks, trees and gutters. I have also soaked this type in a jar with water and ammonia it is now two weeks old and has matured to a much deeper colour.

 

 

lichen

In a windy storm a big hollow gum tree came down on the road side, Jasper and I went to see if we could bring any of it home for our garden ( great for creatures to live in ) To heavy for us to move, but some smaller pieces were covered in hairy lichen, so we picked up what we could carry, of cause  my dye mind was focused on the lichen.

hairy lichen

hairy lichen

stuffed in a jar

a week or so after soaking

colour showing through ammonia and water added

an older brew

 

 

now coloured wool yarn

After much winding from 200gr balls to 50 gr hanks I slipped the hanks into stocking socks to mordant in alum that I had leftover from mordanting the wool blanket (for the coat ) I have four different yarns a 10 ply hand wash 8 ply machine wash 8ply 80%wool 20% bamboo and 5 ply hand wash. The machine wash yarn has not taken up colour as well as the others , but I am very excited over the results so far. Fennel not a lot of colour Coreopsis stunning and lastly some of my local lichen.

fennel tops

 

fennel colour

 

coreopsis flower

 

coreopsis on 5 ply 8ply bamboo mix and 10 ply

 

lichen 8 ply machine wash and 10ply hand wash

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

snap shot of my samples

I have been playing around with different leaves on wool and silk so far the best have been quandong and davidson plum. A friend bought me the skin of a mangostene (a fruit I had never heard of ) I put a few small pieces in a scrunched bundle with onion skin, lichen, iron and leaves and wow what a myriad of colour.

scrunch bundle lichen on the right

scrunch bundle

wool samples

davidson plum on wool

quandong on wool

quandong and bleeding heart

local gum leaves

quandong on silk

scrunch bundle

scrunch bundle

scrunch bundle finished

Getting ready for Mothers Day

 

Well I’ve done it again only days to go and I am busy stitching and dying … I have a new top in the dye pot as I type..and I hope to wear it on Sunday. After my visit to Wendy Bailye’s Studio I have re discovered Lichen, my results after soaking the lichen in cloudy ammonia then adding the liquor to the dye bath.

I am not a pink kinda girl but bundled with purple carrot and autumn leaves I’ll give it ago. Above is the results of nuno texture felt  that has been dyed with lichen the colour variation between the materials is stunning ! I have added some snap shots of bits and pieces that I will have with me on Sunday at Arts in the Olives.