Fabric Dyeing

There’ll be some Blue goin’ on

| JP Dawes Artist

Japanese Indigo My Japanese indigo plants are doing great. An online friend shared seeds she gathered from John Marshall’s indigo garden. The pot is living under my weeping pussywillow tree. It gets filtered sun and it looks pretty happy!

The bottom photo is my woad. I transplanted it out of the pot when it was blooming. SEEDS! I have lots of seeds. I gathered half of them and let the rest self sow in the bed. Originally the bed was going to be weld and woad. Right after i sowed the weld the power company decided to replace a pole right next to the garden. When they were done, all the ground had been turned over and those tiny weld seeds were no place to be found.

Word has it that this lush 2nd year foliage on my woad doesn’t have much pigment. Will that stop me trying it out? Not a chance!

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Do you believe this?

| JP Dawes Artist

After Easter in 2013, the local Dollar General marked all the Paas Egg Dye down to a nickle.  I bought all that was left on the shelf to dye small amounts of wool and silk.   For a $2 investment I got a LOT of dye. When I got home I took it all out of the boxes to save space and put it away for safe keeping.

On more than one occasion I have torn this house apart, my studio, weaving shelves, dye room, bathroom, any place I could stuff or stick a box. Nothing. HA!  Those dyes must have gone into Holiday misfit heaven.

This morning I was cleaning off the shelf above the clothes dryer. I needed the shelf to store the feather pillow inserts I purchased for eco-dyed pillows. At the back of the shelf was the old blue granite pot I used before I got stainless dye pots. Guess where all those boxes have been hiding.  The mystery is solved, and  I can dye this winter with my new found wealth.

PAAS Medium Friends Easter Egg Decorating Kit

 

Eco Print Tee Shirts for Fall

| JP Dawes Artist

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Ron and I have been printing scarves and such while we have good weather. I love this tee!  It is printed with dogwood, smoke bush and fern fronds.  A funny thing is happening with our prints. We weren’t thrilled with the results at first, pale and lack-luster. So I took a page from some literature on persimmon dyeing and plunged this in baking soda water. I got this amazing gold color.  Who knew!

The shirts and things we are doing will be for sale at the Art Odyssey Christmas sale at the library in November.  Well, unless they are sold sooner!

Here is another one that has the bundle marks on the back and the dogwood is much greener.

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Little Pink Worm Undone

| JP Dawes Artist

A small piece of the pink worm undone. I’ve not decided what I  will do with the whole piece so for now I will keep it under wraps.  I can say I am in love with it and it was totally worth the hours spent stitching the resists.

shibori walnut dyed

Dogwood Time in the Ozarks

| JP Dawes Artist

The hills and hollows are full of redwood and dogwood trees in full bloom. The wild wisteria is cascading over the trees in all their purple glory. At my house, a few years ago I noticed dogwood seedlings coming up in my flower beds. The first one was at the back corner of the house. The next year, another sprouted on the front corner of the house. It seems that the birds dropped seeds in the perfect places for the trees to grow. I could not have planned this better. This is a photo of the first dogwood as it began blooming. I love the photo at night with the contrast of the snowy blooms against the night sky.  I know that before long the leaves will be large enough for some leaf prints, but I’ll enjoy the blooms for now.

dogwood jpainedawes