Deadnettle Dye Pot

April 3, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Do you have this weed in your yard or in a field near you? It is Deadnettle, Lamium Purpureum for the purists, and winter weed for the layman. It is a member of the mint family.

Using Sasha Duerr’s book “The Handbook of Natural Plant Dyes” I sort of followed the directions for dyeing with mint. I say sort of because Ron and I used a bundling technique as an experiment rather than just making a dye pot. We put the bundles into a stainless steel pot and simmered for 40 minutes with washing soda and alum in the water. Tomorrow we will see what it looks like after the water cools. We are hoping for a medium mint green color. If they are, some of the pieces will then be put with an iron mordant to see if we get a deeper green. By the way, this is cotton fabric that was scoured and then wetted before bundling. We used a 1/1 concentration of plant to WOF [weight of fabric].

Art Walk at the Blackbird Cafe

March 29, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

In conjunction with TAO, The Art Odyssey, the artists on the studio tours in May were asked to display at the monthly music night at the Blackbird Cafe. There are 2 at a time and last night was my night.

I took a single table display with a few examples of what I do. I thought it was enough. I expected browsers and maybe some chatting about fiber art since many people don’t know what it is. “Surprise, surprise, surprise,” I said in my best Gomer Pyle voice. It was definitely a $$$rewarding$$$ evening.

Something New Finished

March 28, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Rose leaves printed on silk

Outlined and hand quilted with eucalyptus and copper dyed thread

Framed with natural linen

Backed and bordered with vintage African cotton

Will be available on Etsy soon!

Rescuing A Viking 6030 Sewing Machine

March 22, 2014March 23, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

At the Humane Society thrift shop I found this Viking 6030 machine that was in parts. There was a plastic bag with all the pieces that someone in their intake shop had taken off the machine. The story I was told was that it didn’t run and they tried to fix it and decided to sell it for parts. It was also very dirty, a slight cigarette smell…but it was only $5 and I knew that if I couldn’t get it back together and running that I could easily sell the carry case, foot control and extension table for a lot of cash on Ebay.

Since I had rescued a similar machine I knew that the biggest problem with the older Vikings is oil and grease that solidifies in the gears. If you try to run them it will crack the cam shaft and then it will only do a straight and zig zag stitch. Sometimes they get stuck in reverse so someone will think there is a big problem.

As soon as I got home, I covered the dining room table and spread out all the parts. They had taken apart the bobbin winding mechanism that is also the reduction gear and attaches to the belt that drives the hand wheel. I had nothing to look at or figure out where all the parts went. There was even a tiny little ball bearing the size of a pin head! I was so lucky they put all these parts in the bag and nothing was lost.

After a few hours of putting it together and taking it apart just to put it back together a different way, I was ready to plug it in. The motor ran, the light worked and the controller gave it power. But none of the stitch dials moved and it ran hard. I quickly unplugged it and took the covers off so I could reach all the gears and drive bars. I liberally coated all of it with a silicone oil that melts the old grease.

This morning, I put thread in the reassembled machine and crossed my fingers. It runs perfectly!! I wish I had taken photos of the machine in parts but I hope you can appreciate that this wonderful machine was headed for the dump and now it has a new life.

Ron is so funny….he said I was the only person he knew who could spend $5 to have hours and hours of fun repairing and rescuing an old machine. It is cheaper than a movie and popcorn or even renting a DVD. I asked him if he wanted me to see if I could fix that damn light on the vintage Buick Regal that the mechanics can’t seem to fix. He told me to have at it! Hmmmmmmmm……

**** This is from another site but is basically what the parts looked like that I had to put back together. The guy who did this one at least knew where each part was supposed to go and didn’t have to do a hit or miss puzzle like I did.

My Partner in Crime is Dyeing

March 19, 2014March 19, 2014 | JP Dawes Artist

Ron expressed an interest in learning some bundling and dyeing techniques. I’m a novice and everything is experimenting so I have no objection to him coming along for the ride. I asked this morning what he was going to do with the fabric he dyes and he said he didn’t know what I was going to do with it, he is just going to dye it!

I thought you would like to see his first dyeing experiments. After he bundled some rose petals and rose leaves in silk and linen he rolled them up and tied them. The long skinny one he did when I was out of the room and he didn’t add any vegetation before he rolled it around a rusty spike. They were cooked in a vinegar and yellow onion skin bath. Some pretty good results! Oh yes, he left the bundles to sit for 3 whole days before unrolling them. The man has infinite patience that I don’t have.