I was rifling through some of the wool and silk items that I packed away protectively during summer, (when clothes m*ths are breeding) and realised I still have three scarf blanks that were given to me by friends. One is a wool gauze, I think.
One is probably silk scrim.
And the other looks like a finer grade of still quite open-weave silk.
I had an idea for how they might find happy homes, and after some days of wishing but not finding time…
These leaves were collected in the neighbourhood as they fell from trees lining a driveway. And of course, eucalyptus! One pot had a madder exhaust in it, because madder is never really exhausted as far as I can tell.
Out they came…
The silk scrim will need another dye bath, I think. The other two made me very happy–and this is good, because I planned for them to be part of my daughter’s birthday present. I tried a different folding and wrapping strategy on the wool and love the way it came out. The tie resist marks were great–
There are leafy parts and abstract parts, parts that are burgundy or grey-black and others that are more orange.
I tend to get more muted colours on silk, and this was no exception. Still lovely, and just as important in this case, different.
I hope she will like them both. She lives in a colder part of the country and she does love a good scarf.
And now… they have been folded, wrapped, tied with hand made string and placed in the post!
Local & Bespoke 
Love the tie resist marks! Thanks.
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Thankyou!
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Yes, yes, those resist marks are heavenly but all looks delicious from where I’m sittin’ …. ;>)
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Thanks so much, Christi!
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Beautiful, colour, marks, organic-abstract look… She will be delighted!
(I wish I was like madder:)
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Lovely leaf prints, I wish we had the eucalpyts over here that make the red.
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Hi Debbie, thank you! It would be hard for these tress to grow in your climate, for sure. I have lost the capacity to comment on blogger recently but have been over looking at your blog. I hope that fabulous dress in dupion comes out just as you dream of it!
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lovely sure to be cherished … I love discovering different ways to wrap a bundle to get those wonderous marks
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Me too. Thanks for your lovely compliment! The woad seedlings are now at 4 leaves and looking good.
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What Christi said. Delicious.
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Thanks! I got a text this morning with two photos of a sleepyhead dressed for work and wearing the wool scarf–happiness!
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Woo hoo to a super mum! They are all lovely specially those tie marks. Happy weekend – Hugs Nat
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Thank you so much! I hope you have a lovely weekend too…
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Can you use onion skins instead of madder? Can you use any eucalyptus leaves ? Can you use store bought soy milk as mordant ?
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You can use onion skins but the result will be different. You can use any soy milk but additives are not needed. You can use any euc leaves but they give very different colours.
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Thanks so much – it’s for a kids art program but it’s new to me – cold processing instead of steaming – how does that work? I live in the tropics
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I don’t know of a way to cold process these dyes. Eucalypts especially require heat.
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Do you always spray vinegar onto your bundles ? Have you tried sea water as a fixative ?
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I don’t always do it, but I like the effect. Sea water also seems to help. I tend to use it as a first layer under soy milk. But not always.
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