Hello again, here's the latest dyeing piccys. I spent some time with a friend Sally using fibre reactive bought dyes-it was really fun and the dyes are certified organic so that's a bonus! I used lots of different dyes, dripped them on and while wet (and wrapped in plastic) squeezed the wool so the colours blended...it was so exciting seeing them come out of the steamer...gorgeous!
It's a really different process using natural materials-more guesswork and happy accidents...one thing I am doing is combining small amounts of blue food colouring with barks and gum leaves...with natural materials the colours are very subtle and the blue food colours very bold so pulling these together gets more complex results. This one above in ultramarine blues and olive spinachy green was a real favourite. It started out a yellowish brownish tone and was over dyed with different strengths of blue food colouring painted directly onto the wool then heat fixed in the microwave.
Above piccy is a beautiful orange shade from different gum barks and leaves, the kind of colour I wouldn't want to do anything else to :o) Apparently all 600 species of eucalyptus trees produce useful dyes so I am going to be playing with this stuff for years to come!
xo happy creating,
tree hugger Kate
