My New Reliable Velocity Iron

This is my old Reliable Velocity iron. It has been reliable but after 5 years I have worn it out. It is not worth repairing, the cost of which would include having to ship it both ways across the country. It is no longer made and has been replaced by an updated model.

This is my new Reliable Velocity iron. I am hoping it has kept the best features of the older model and improved on others.

New on the right. There are a lot more and smaller steam holes. The grooves that shot the steam along the sole plate have gone. It will be hard to compare if the new is more effective but here's hoping.

The top point is pointier - a good feature for detail work but I use this iron mainly for flat yardage. The back is curvier which makes it harder to tell when the straight edge of the fabric is covered with the sole plate.

New on the right. The main difference is the push button digital readout has gone. This was the feature that failed on the older model. My resident engineer says it would have been very difficult to keep the electronics sealed away from the steam chamber. The temperature is now controlled by a manual dial.

The water sprayer has gone. That is OK because I didn't use this feature. The steam-generating chamber produced enough steam to smooth out the driest and most wrinkled fabrics.

The new model has a clearer plastic water chamber so it is easier to see the water level. As a consequence, I don't overfill it as often. 

New on the right. The water filter (bottom left on the older model) has gone. With a steam generator, the water quality can affect its lifespan and efficiency. I am filling the new iron with only distilled water to avoid the buildup of scale and rust in the chamber. Even though the shop I bought the first iron from told me it was OK to leave water in the chamber all of the time, I now empty it at the end of each session. It will make a difference in prolonging the life of the iron.

New on the right. The water fillers illustrate the newer model has a smaller water chamber holding about a third less water. I consider this a negative feature because it means I have to refill it more often. 

I poured water from the old container into the newer iron and this is the leftover water. I don't know if you can see the water line here.

After a short time using the new iron I found another negative feature. I kept naturally putting my hand forward of the rubber handle and unintentionally pushing the buttons with my palms. I found it was easy to bump the circular dial to a different setting. At first, I thought this heavy iron, which I like the weight of, was unbalanced in that my hand went to the centre point and covered the buttons.

 Then I noticed when I kept my hand back away from the buttons my fingers were scrunched against the back of the handle. I have decided the handle design was too short.

I really like that this iron is so heavy. It does a great job without my having to put any weight on the handle. All I need to do is guide it with my hand. 

When ironing I aim to keep the iron down and in contact with the cloth as much as possible and to lift it only when I need to move the fabric. By using the weight of the iron and its feature of being able to continuously produce steam I can get a lot of ironing done relatively quickly for little effort on my part. This is the main reason why I bought this brand again. I am hoping its modifications and my better care of it will ensure we have a long and happy life together.

What is your favourite iron? I would be interested to hear from you.

Stitching Completed on the Tree Cloths

I have stitched the last band on each of the 4 tree cloths.

Each cloth documents the growth of the tree over one year.

The cloth is a chromatic record of biological processes.

The colours and their sequence are different on each cloth.

Stitching on the Tree Cloths

 

After sampling...

...I used the colour studies to find matching coloured threads...

...and headed outside to stitch on the cloth. 

 

Wrapping the 4 Trees Again

Arbutus


Maple

Douglas-fir

Cedar

Decisions Decisions

Throughout this term of my studies I had continued to move along about 8 other dialogues out in the forest that I had established during the previous term. By the end of the winter term I decided my final degree exhibition would be about the tree cloths - a big decisions when I still had so much to resolve. This meant I needed to wrap another set of cloths around the trees and I needed to do it now to give the trees as much time as possible to get busy staining the cloth.

I liked the idea of pre-mordanting the cloth in sea water just a short distance away from where the trees are growing. Sampling had shown sea water to be an effective pre-mordant on cotton. A pre- mordant was likely to stimulate the staining process.

I made another decision too. The cloths would be bed sheets my 3 children slept on while growing up. 

I liked the idea of using the same nurturing cloths being used to express my need to get to know these trees.   

An important part of my work is to use textiles with an accumulated history. During a research module I had written a paper looking at how different artists worked with the human imprint on cloth.
While I soaked the sheets in the sea, 2 men  threw a ball for their dog and watched me. When I walked back towards them they said, 'We have to ask. Art or science?' I said, 'both.'

Repair and Mending Tree Cloths

 

 

 

The obvious response was to repair and mend the holes and tears in the tree cloths. Mending techniques by their nature aim to be invisible so this would be a necessary but not obvious response. I needed to do something more to the tree cloths.

Adding My Staining to Tree Cloths

I am at the stage in my dialogue with the trees where it is my turn to respond. I need to make a mark reflecting the development of my relationship with these trees. I sampled dyeing with a Cedar branch  extraction but wasn't enamoured with the colour nor the overall even covering of the tree's marks. Next I sampled more textural dyed marks using Procion MX colours.

Successive randomly scrumpled immersions in various greens built up the colour complexity.

Results were OK but while I was spending hours in the kitchen (natural dyeing on stove top) and in my dye studio, I felt quite removed from the trees. I didn't know what the trees were doing. The dialogue had shifted to a monologue. I needed to find another way to respond to the trees.

Making My Mark on the Tree Cloths

After noticing Cedar stems left a print on cotton, I decided to make a dye with them. I collected windfall branches, cut them into small pieces....

...brought them to a boil, simmered for 2 hours then left the pot to cool overnight. I poured off the liquid as the 1st extraction and repeated the process twice more, making 2nd and 3rd extractions.

I dyed 2 sea-water, pre-mordanted cloths in the 1st extraction with a copper simultaneous-mordant. The cloth on the left had an ammonia post-mordant.

These 2 cloths had ash water pre-mordant with a copper simultaneous-mordant. The left hand cloth had an ammonia post-mordant. The results were a yellow-orange colour with the ammonia post-mordant shifting the colour more towards an orange. Interesting results but i wasn't enamoured with the colour. Even though the dye was made with material from the same tree that made the 1st stains, I couldn't see a connection between the two.

Eco-printing on Tree Cloths

After washing and ironing the eco-printed samples...

..i found them uninspiring.

 

This Cedar stem showed the most potential as a dye source.

I tore off pieces of the Cedar tree cloth and soaked them in a number of different pre-mordants,
sea water...

... almond milk and ash water. Each sample was coded with the different combinations of pre-mordants it had been soaked in. Sample cloths were left to dry slowly, outside on rocks in the garden.