The Garden is Blooming

Our garden is most showy in the spring when the rhododendrons are blooming.

A couple of years ago, when my mother was visiting, she pruned and wrenched this rhododendron.

In the fall I moved it to its new bed.

This spring it has produced huge blooms telling me it is happy in its new home.

Purple french lavender and a red rhododendron - quite a colour scheme but the bees are in heaven.

A problem with the present garden is there is not much for the insects to feed on over the summer months.

I'm working on it.

Busy Weekend

Each day I have continued to repair the bead work on this dress.

The weekend started out warm and breezy - perfect conditions for laundering my collection of domestic linens, acquired over the winter.

Outside in the breeze until damp dry.

Then "polishing" with a steam iron.

This process took 2 days!

Pattern Design For Artists

The students have spent the past couple of weeks learning how to make repeating patterns, developing their own designs then using them to create different patterns.

Connie cuts a quick, inexpensive corrugated cardboard stamp to trial a design.

Elisha created a design based on a building then translated it into foam stamps, one the mirror of the other so she could make a greater variety of patterns.

She chose one of 17 different patterns she could make with this stamp to print on a heavier weight cotton.

Charlotte is developing designs based on the pineapple.

Sarah is exploring pattern making with a design based on lines found on rocks.

She made quick foam stamps of the design in the positive and negative and the mirrors of both. These 4 stamps allow her to create a vast number of different patterns.  

Connie's humming bird wing design is proving to be most successful.

She has produced many pleasing and promising patterns with it.

Natural Dyeing a Wool Blanket

This wool blanket is  special. It was produced in the UK sometime between 1941 and 1952 when the government set strict standards for UK produced products, to aid the war economy. 

The Price Control Mark label specifies this blanket, NPC 880, was guaranteed to contain 2 pounds of wool and had a set price of 25/8 shillings.

With such a history I must admit I did hesitate before plunging it into the alum bath.

The wrinkled label testifies to the abuse the blanket has been put through over its 60 or 70 years. It has been unevenly and probably unintentionally, fulled. 

Now it needs to be made beautiful again - with fungi and lichen dyes.

Fairy Ring mushrooms sound as though they will produce something magical.

Mushrooms plus lichens laid out on the blanket. 

Plus a few lichen covered twigs and scraps of bark

All rolled up tightly then squeezed into a bucket of acidic pond water and ammonia.

The bucket will now rest beside the boiler for a month or so, or until I can no longer wait to open it.

Fungi and Mushroom Dyeing

For a while I have been thinking about dyeing with fungi and lichens.

 When the fairy rings appeared in the lawn I took it as a sign.

Fairy Ring Mushroom (Marasmius oreacles)

My mushroom book says they are edible but doesn't mention anything about their dye potential.

I scraped a variety of lichens off the old alder trees.

Dead branches from the Big Leaf Maple host colonies of lichens that I added to my collection.

I also have a bag of windfall lichens, mosses and fungi collected on my morning walks.

Now, how do I go about dyeing with them?

Next step is to do some Internet research.

Down to the Bog

I am trying some more dyeing in the environment. 

First I pre-mordanted a wool blanket in alum and cream of tarter but I'm not sure I had to do that.

Then I headed outside, negotiated the right distance to walk around this family without being attacked, and went on into the forest...

...down to the bog.

 I dropped the blanket into the water...

...and stomped on it.

The idea is to leave it for up to a year with occasional liftings to oxidise what is going on.

It is an old Scandinavian technique for getting shades of black on wool.

How to sit correctly in front of the computer

The Bridesmaid and the Bead

There will be a family wedding this summer. Older daughter is the bride and younger daughter is a bridesmaid. We found the bridesmaid dress. It has a beautiful  hand beaded, flowing design all over it.

But there is a problem - I counted 71 places where the beads have come off.

 The bridesmaid pointed out the problem to the cashier and got a further discount on the price then confidently said her mother could fix it. 

I looked at the little pack of extra beads attached to the dress's tag. 

Hmmm, not enough for the repairs.

There are 4 different beads in the mix. 

I went into my bead stash. No matches. 

I didn't realise my bead stash was so inadequate.

I spied this beaded place mat under a plant pot and found 2 of the beads in it. The dress has priority. The place mat will just be a little smaller when I have finished. 

Oh dear, now I have to go to a bead store to find the 2 missing beads. 

The things I will do for my children!