Alchemy

I am continuing to have fun exploring natural dyeing.  There are still a few flax lily berries around and I dyed some more silk scraps, this time sprinkling the berries onto an offcut of quila and then making a little package with the silk or fine woolen fabric and some twine wrapped around the berries and wood.  A lot of colour came out of the quila, which I wasn't expecting but I really liked results:

and here is the little piece of fine woollen fabric - I love the way the twine acted as a resist:

And then I was inspired by some insect trails on a tree

to try a shibori type technique (I think).  I used silk again and dyed it with hoop pine bark, it turned out slightly warmer and pinker than the quila.

I have some eucalypt bark in a dye bath with some silk scraps at the moment.  I will leave them to sit overnight and see what they look like in the morning.  I have also found tea to be a lovely effective dye.  I have a feeling though that because I haven't used any heavy mordants that these colours may fade if they are subjected to lots of bright light.

Parrots and Pythons

We have been walking very early in the day and this morning the world was damp and the parrots were shouting.  Here are photos and a haiku:

Last night's rain,
silver on the grass,

lorikeets stir the morning with song.

The night rain brings small surprises:

This afternoon a smallish python with a full belly coiled near the gutter to digest its meal:

I dyed some fabric today using blue quandong fruit and lots of flax lily berries (many more than on this plate).  I dyed silk mordanted with salt.

This piece of fabric was the second piece dyed in the dye-bath, the first was darker but it is under the house drying and I haven't photographed it yet.  I am amazed at the deep colour that was achieved with only the most natural of ingredients.  I am soaking a third piece of silk overnight, I think it will be lighter but still definately mauve.