ecodye - pine!~

     perhaps this post is a bit premature.. i am not super impressed with my photos & i have not quite identified the tree i used, all i know is that it is some kind of pine.. but i felt like making it anyway! ..this was my first ecodye experiment with evergreens!~
    i picked the branches on a walk down to the river.. it was a tree along ada blvd.

    the sun was actually pretty much down at this point, so the pictures are not as clear as i would have liked.. ugh.  see.. the photo below, was taken even before and is actually of the tree next to it.. and i think it as actually of a different type of pine altogether because as i was picking the branches, i just happened to feel the branches of this other tree and well, they were different.

    i um.. steeped? ..maybe processed is the word? the branches in steaming hot water for 10min.  these are them when i put them in..

    after doing that they had significantly lost their green.. they were more of a ..well.. i dont know.. but less green & yeah.. that stove top is really dirty, i see.. but i dont use it to cook & well.. i havent washed it in awhile & i dont care.  next i soaked them in a homemade iron solution for 30min or so..  then i laid them out on my fabric... this fabric, well, it was a remnant that i got at the reuse center.. so it is 'fabric unknown' ..but from burning a little bit i am guessing that it is some sort of blend.. i am guessing that there is a bit of poly in there somewhere?  ..it didnt totally curl up or anything.. but it didnt burn nice and clean either..

    so.. after laying them out, i just rolled it up and tied it up tight.  then i steamed it in my makeshift steamer for an hour, flipping it partway through.. which is good, because when i opened it up to check i  noticed that it had fallen and part of it was submerged in the water.. oops.  after an hour i turned off the heat and just left it in there to cool.  and then about 3 days later i opened it up.

     and it looked like this:

     i took some pictures in more detail.. but well.. the lighting in my house is rotten.. so ugh.  but here goes..

     the fabric had really bunched up in the process, so i attempted to pull it straight and take some pictures.. not too easy mind you.

    and then.. some details.. hopefully...

     i think that it looks pretty neat.  & i also think that if it was pure cotton then it would show up better, cause this fabric was a little strange.. or also that if i soaked the branches in the iron longer that would work better too!  but i will experiment again!

rust dyeing on paper!~

    i got out a new book from the library that i am fairly excited about.. it is called: Natural Processes in Textile Art: From Rust Dyeing to Found Objects by Alice Fox.  i had really just flipped through it, and it looks really neat.. lots of neat stuff.. but one of the things that i saw was the use of tea in rust dyeing!  i had never really heard/seen that before.. i suppose it makes sense, the tannic acid.  i was telling my cousin about this and she said that she had heard of this a lot in staining wood, but it was new to me!
    anyway.. i hadnt even read the section of the book, but i did myself a little experiment.. of rust dyeing on paper.. something i had never done before.  i put the same sorts of various bits of rusty things that i already had from some of my fabric experiments.. paper clips, safety pin, etc..

     i did 2.. just on pieces of white cardstock.. one i soaked for a bit in some tea.. i happened to have a jar on my shelf that had been sitting there for months with some old teabags soaking in it.. just waiting.. waiting to have something done with it.. so yay!  ..and the other one, the paper was soaked in plain old vinegar.  this is what i got:

tea:

  

vinegar:

    i found it really interesting at the difference the 2 liquids made.  Also.. on the vinegar, the copper pennies gave a bit of blue.. neat!  but they didnt do much of anything with the tea.  it was a neat experiment though.. just a quick little trial.  fun stuff.