Plant Dyes - Tansy and Queen Anne’s Lace

I picked my tansy from the side of the road, it grows about 4 feet high, and the leaves are sort of like a fern. What makes is easy to identify is its flowers – bright yellow buttons forming clusters. The flowers have the scent of camphor and rosemary, it can make quite a stink when simmering on the stove – go outside! Supposedly the flowers can be used as a mosquito repellant.
The tansy had been drying in its paper bag for almost 2 months before I got around to making dye with it. I’m not sure if the color would have been brighter if they had been used fresh. My dry plant material was twice the weight of the wool used.

As with most of my dyeing, I simmer the plant material the night before for about 45 minutes and then let the pot with the plant material sit overnight. I strain the plant matter from the juice; add my wool I have pre-mordanted in alum and heat to a simmer for about 45 minutes. I remove the wool from the pot, rinse thoroughly and take three bundles of yarn and put one each in a dip of iron, tin and copper, leave it to come to a simmer and remove -- 10 to 20 minutes -- or until the color has shifted . I again rinse out these samples and hang them up to dry.

The photo shows the final product, from left to right:

Tansy with alum, tin, copper and iron. Then Queen Anne’s Lace with alum, tin, copper and iron. These two plants gave very similar colors, except the Tansy with the tin is a much brighter gold-orange than the lace. The photo doesn’t show it well but the iron modifier turned both of these into a very deep olive green.

I picked the Queen Anne’s Lace from the land next to a freeway on-ramp. I knew the road crew mower was coming so I went back several times collecting only about a third each times. I wanted to get as many of the blossoms as possible, but still leave plenty to seed for next year before they mowed them all down.

The legend of Queen Anne’s Lace is that the queen was tatting (making lace) and pricked her finger, there were several spatters of blood and that’s why the flowers have a pink center.

The plant is closely related to the carrot, so when crushing the leaves in your hand or simmered on the stove, it smells like carrots. The root is supposed to be edible, but the plant also looks a lot like hemlock – yes, the very deadly poison of old. Both plants can also grow in the same place, so extreme caution should be used, make sure you have positive identification if you’re planning on using it for food. The leaves of hemlock smell horrible when crushed in your hand – don’t lick your fingers after trying this test, wash thoroughly and carefully afterward.

The Queen Anne’s Lace was picked in early fall, dried and wasn’t used until 2 months later. The dry plant material was one and a half the weight of the wool used.

Exhibit!

I was just notified today that I will be showing in the Auburn City Hall Gallery in June 2011. (I’ll be sharing the space with a photographer.)

My art world is going great!

Last week I was notified that I would be having a solo exhibit in the Lynnwood Arts Commissions’ Gallery space sometime next year. Adding these to the solo exhibit I was scheduled for earlier at the University Unitarian Church for November 2011, I think I’m about booked for next year – who knows what group shows might be happening next year between the EDGE group and the Fiber 19 gals.

I got a lot of work to do…

In 2010 I got into a few juried shows plus was in 5 group shows with the above groups. My goal for 2011 was to get a solo show somewhere – coffee shop, yoga studio, I didn’t really care. But then I got the solo show at the church (found out about that in May), so I told myself I had to go to the next level and at least apply to some real galleries, thinking on the level of municipal spaces. Within the last month, I applied to 2 places and as of 2 hours ago have found out I got both – who could ask for more?

Photo: Bryce Canyon

Indigo!

comes out of the dye pot green

We got into the indigo - a totally different way of dyeing. Forget what you learned the day before, this is vat dyeing. Put the stuff in a pot,, add stuff to take out something, add something else to take out the oxygen, and make sure the ph is between 9.5 and 10.5 -- picky little process! I'll definately have to go over my notes to get this all straight in my head, but it was fun!

turns blue reacting to the air

When you take your yarn out of the dye pot it's green and as it reacts with th air it becomes blue - totally magical!

Dipping our yarns dyed from the previous day did somewhat as suspected -- turned yellows into greens and reds into purples, but what a color range we created without much effort.

our beautiful range of colors

Mad Scientist

weighing fiber

It's "mad scientist" time at Convergence! The class in natural dyes is about to start, I hope it is very "hands on" and we get to take home samples. I've only done natural dyeing with plants I have gathered in the neighborhood. That beginning into the world of plant dyes has been very interesting and entertaining for the neighbors to watch, but I mostly get yellows, greens and browns. The class today will play with the materials to get reds and blues -- finally a whole range of colors from natural sources!

cooking dyestuffs

We got right to work, going over the basics and getting the amounts for mordant worked out for the different fibers. Moved onto straining the dyestuffs (that the instructor had soaked overnight.) and putting the samples into the dye. After alternating from info bits and figuring out percentages for more dyestuffs and taking out the samples and washing them -- a lot of juggling of tasks by the instructor to keep things moving forward -- we ended up with seven plant samples in wool and cotton.

chopping madder

Our dyestuffs are: Osage Orange (yellow), Sage (yellow), Madder (reds), Brazilwood (reds), Cochineal (reds), Logwood (purple), and Cutch (tan). Many of these plants are altered by hard or soft water, ph levels and temperature - I can understand how modern science could figure this out, but how did our ancient peoples figure all this out? Smarts and time -- passing down information for generations. Amazement and respect for those that came before us!

cooking the yarn

Tomorrow we'll put indigo and iron into the mix and end up with 42 samples plus whatever we do with the indigo.

samples drying

 

Wedge Weave

I'm at HGA Convergence in Albuquerque and spent the last two days in a class on wedge weaving. Wedge weaving is easy to identify by it's scalloped edges. It was originally done by the Navajos but possibly fell out of favor when interior designers equated straight selvages with quality. I had not heard of this type of weaving until reading about the class in the Convergence class catalog. I have been wanting to learn tapestry techniques and this was the closest I could come to at the conference. I googled "wedge weave" to find out what it was and looked at some traditional images (on right). I also checked out the instructor Connie Lippert and liked the contemporary way she was interpreting this traditional technique(below left).

Wedge weaving is unusual because the weaving is done at an angle, changing colors to create wedges, diagonals and arrow shapes. We all started out working on little cardboard looms learning how to begin each wedge, and how to change colors.

At right is my beginning cardboard sample.

We then moved on to our real looms and began our projects. I chose to go for the big shapes, minimal color, bold approach. I also used colors that were totally unlike me, I don't think I have ever used blue, red, and gray together.

Below is my beginning, middle and end of class project. I think I'm about half done after 10 hours of weaving. This did include some time for "unweaving" my errors and general slowness trying to figure out what to do next or begin the next section.

My weaving technique was in general, not great, but that would improve with practice. I also was using heavy yarn, which on one hand made the weaving go faster, but I also think it was harder to make it smooth and even since the three yarns packed differently. Or I could be making excuses...

I'm also including (below) the weaving starts from some of my classmates.

I probably won't get into wedge weaving in a big way, but the techniques are interesting and could see myself using this together with other tapestry techniques in my future work.

Artist Anniversary

It's been a year since our graduation show for the Fiber Arts program. What a year is has been! A perfect time to make note of accomplishments, check up on goals, and assess what has to happen next.

Artmaking has been a constant this year, I always have one or two projects in the works and think about what's next all the time. One person would say I am consumed and have neglected almost everything else and I suppose in a way that is true.



Accomplishments:
I have had four pieces accepted into three different juried exhibits. They were local, but I made the effort to get my work out there and get some feedback from people who weren't family or friends. I also had rejections, but that goes along with entering.

My fiber class has continued to meet -- Fiber 19 as we call ourselves. We have had one group show in a cafe and one more exhibit is booked for October.

I also graduated from the EDGE program (developed by Artist Trust, Seattle). A sort of a "business for artists" type class. We learned about grant writing, portfolios, marketing, taxes etc. We are having an exhibit that starts next week and runs for two months, and because of one classmate with connections, this exhibit will also go on to two more venues before the end of the year.

And finally: I have a solo show booked for November 2011 at an alternative venue with great space and high volume attendance. I'm excited about this! not only is it "all about me" but it's a great opportunity to plan how the whole space will look.

So I have succeeded in my goal of working toward getting a body of work together and showing my work to the public. My next challenge is to complete this body of work and get into higher level venues. I also still have to get all of the parts of the "art job" organized and my space functioning the way I want it.

Back to work!

Photo above is called "Goblin Valley" I visited this state park in Utah many years ago -- remembering the orange hoodoos that populated this valley.


- Posted from my iPad

Move by heart or move by head

In about a year, I may be starting the next phase of my life. Full time employment hopefully will be in the past. I will be able to spend more of my time making art or exploring many other interests without having to squeeze them into the time leftover after working for someone else.

We're thinking about moving to CA for warmer and dryer weather. Two locations have been picked out. One town is on the Central Coast; it's small, the roads are quiet, close to the ocean, but that also means it's farther from the big city offerings including a vibrant art scene. I have not looked in depth to see what's there, but it doesn't look as good as what even Seattle has to offer (not counting the contacts and groups I already have in Seattle). But I "like" it there.

The other area is the east bay near San Francisco; the towns are big and numerous, the roads are busy - what would cycling be like here? The BART is nearby offering an easy way to get into SF and all it has to offer. Art - can it get much better? I already know of an art group I could possibly join and I'm sure there are more already established. With all those galleries, there must be many places to exhibit for established and emerging artists. But I guess I just don't "like" it as much.

I know I would be happy in either place.

I like the Central Coast because it's small. I like the East Bay because it's big.

Follow your heart? Or follow your head?



- Posted from my iPad