day 17

Fungi in our eco system come in many sizes and shapes
and they are here already for a looooong time.
Living things that have their own importance in nature.

When I made this nuno-felt jewel
I ended up with something like little cups
that somewhat looked like a funny fungus.

Here is my PINK  RIBBON Textile Jewel for day 17 :

a wet felted brooch with tiny cups (shibori/nuno-felted with chiffon))
stitched with lots and lots of blue seed beads
(5,5 cm)

For a donation of 

€ 15,-

SOLD  !

this fun brooch can be yours.

To keep it or give it as a present to someone you love.
You just need to send me an email at

[email protected]

(or you can tell me in the comments down here)

and we'll arrange the following steps

(Paypal is possible and easy,

mind the postage)

ALL the money goes to PINK RIBBON !

"FUNGUS"

This is the way it was made

There will be another Textile Jewel tomorrow
. . .
and I hope to see you then again !

a blue day

Yesterday was a

blue day

and ... it was a day full of magic !

Eight ladies and a nice teacher, Elly Poldervaart, explored 

(along the edges of)

the  v a s t  realm of indigo.

(surely that is too much to fathom in just one day,

I think you can study years on that !) 

After the introduction

Elly started making an organic indigo vat,

according to the instructions of "Indigo-guru"

botanist and chemist Michel Garcia

A look inside the magic pot !

We then all started with a length of  thin woolen fabric (etamine)

to fold, clamp or stitch shibori-wise.

(it was very silent then ...)

(totally forgot to take pictures of my own stitching)

We had a good lunch

(although we didn't have "time" for that  ;-) ...)
and started "dipping" after that,
or
continued stitching, like me

Checking temperature,
checking pH
and putting the first one in.

Tah-daaaaaaah

There it is
yellow, green ... and then slowly
BLUE

After that ...
it started raining !!!
(and no small drops)
So everything was moved a bit, to the bicycle storage
(Elly's studio is in an old school building)

Slowly, one by one
the magic blue cloths appeared !

Hmmmmmm ...... unpicking the threads
took quite some time and effort !

In the end we could put in
some more items that we brought with us.

Then, too soon, it was time to tidy up and put all the work on the table

Thanks Elly
it was a day of magic !

At home waited Man with yummy lasagna
(another treat !)
and some more rinsing and unpicking
...........

My green silk strip
and ...

moons !!!


What a day ...

BLUE  !!!

preparations

Indigo, holds something 

magic

for me.

And because the process isn't easy at all,

because I don't have much room

(inside or outside) for dyeing

I'm very happy that I'm attending an 

indigo workshop

tomorrow !

Yeaaahhh !

So this week was time for preparations for that.

On some lovely green silk
(a birthday present from last year)
I started stitching ...
and pulling tight !

I don't know all the Japanese names
for the different kinds of shibori
but you can find a LOT about it on the net.

The whole green strip is stitched now
and now I'm busy on an old T shirt of daughter
and an off white silk "camisole"

I'm delighted to have little bits of fabric
on which I can dye my own indigo  moons 
(like the ones Glennis and Jude make)

One piece finished :
ready for the dye pot !

...I wonder ...

Yesterday there were two lovely sisters

(no not mine)

who wanted to know a bit about patchwork and quilting.

We had a busy day

with a lot of talking, showing, explaining

and ofcourse stitching !!!

a lunch break, and more stitching !

They went home satisfied and I think there will be at least one

who will continue stitching

*

The garden had a much needed shower

so at the moment it is very

green

(.... and other colours ofcourse ...)

*

At last .....

I started some shibori stitching !

While I was going through my stash for the dyeing wokshop

with Pam de Groot in July, I found some lovely thin

white curtains (IKEA ... bought a long time ago)

After washing and ironing I tore them up in not too narrow strips.

Then I looked for Natima's tutorial on the stitching.

(She and Glennis Dolce are back from their trip to Japan !)

what a lot of work !!!

And the next step : the dyeing....

I have some pre-reduced Indigo

(but have never used it before)

... I wonder .....

*

Another try-out : 

after seeing beautiful purple stains on silk

on Jude's blog ánd after studying a bit in India's Eco-dyeing book :

....I wonder ....

what will become of this ?

(time will tell !)