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.