Saturday 5 September 2009

Natural Dyes - Blackerry

15 comments:

Poetic Artist said...

Thank you for your visit to my blog. I had to visit and I am so glad that I did..Your blog is beautiful and your work is Wonderful..
I will travel across the sea to visit you often.
Katelen

Anne said...

oooh,so beautiful, there are pink hearts in it:))

lettuce said...

beautiful, i love this.

I've done some natural dying - spun wool rather than fleece - and used blackberry leaf shoots in the spring. I've been making elderberry syrup lately and the cloths I use don't come out a very good colour - not half as nice as this.

Jasmine said...

Katelen - thank you for visiting. I love your blog :)

Assayya - thank you :)

Lettuce - I found this website that gives loads of pointers for using natural dyes.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/naturaldyes.html

It was ambiguous about timings so for the fixative, I simmered the wool in salt solution for around 15 mins before draining.

For the dye, I used as little water as possible, then when the dye had been prepared I squeezed the berries as hard as I could through muslin to get all the juice out then simmered the wool in the dye juice until there was virtually no liquid left.

Caio Fern said...

good to know it dyes so well .

patricia said...

It´s beautiful! I imagine that those blackberries of your previous post (and its words) have given birth to this enchanting, loving colour. The hearts seem to be raising like bubbles towards the sky...

Tammie Lee said...

Gorgeous color! Wow, I guess the outcome might be worth a broken heart here and there?

Jasmine,
I am wanting to make tiny baby booties for two babes. I have an old cashmere (my favorite wool!) sweater that I would like to felt and use for the booties. Do you know how I go about this, soak in hot water?
If you have any suggestions, thank you so much!
Tammie
Spirithelpers

Jasmine said...

Caio - Its always fun getting a result from natural dying I had some failures earlier in the summer so the blackberries have definitely compensated for it and renewed my enthusiasm :)

Aleph - you leave the most beautiful comments x

Tammie - I've not tried this method before but had fun looking for instruction sites. Te first link below explains how to recycle sweaters into felt, the second link teaches how to make booties. It seemed liked a good pattern for this type of felting because you cut th shapes you need and stitch together.

http://www.tryourdesigns.com/Tips%20and%20Tricks/FeltingSweaters.htm

http://www.gfwsheep.com/flatfelt/flatfelt3.html

Let me know how you get on Tammie, post pictures x

ArtSparker said...

What a delicious color.

Tammie Lee said...

Thank you!!! xoxoxo
I will let you know how it goes. The pattern I was thinking of using is:
http://www.heatherbaileydesign.com/Booties.html

I will now consider the on you have shared here, or do both.
Tammie

velvetwoods said...

It's so sweet and the colour turned out so well.

Crafty Green Poet said...

what a gorgeous subtle shade...

CJ STITCHING AND BLOOMS said...

What a wonderful color from black berries. Who would quess. I love the heart images on your felted projects. May I ask how you gave the wool the heart impressions?? Thanks

You have the most wonderful blog. Hugs Judy

Jasmine said...

Judy - Thank you :)

I'm just learning to felt right now so everything I try is a bit of an experiment. I've just received some felting needles so this piece was needle felted as a sheet of felt. I needle felted some hearts. when I pulled the needled felted sheet off the sponge, the reverse side came out very hairy, where the needle had driven the fibres into the sponge. It looked and felt lovely so I decided to attach the hearts to that side. Originally I had expected that the hearts would be raised above the surface of the felt sheet, but because the hairs were so long they are actually sunk in. I liked the outcome and will try this again.

Hope this makes sense?

t said...

MMMMMmmmmblackberries.....Mmmmmmm. Only frozen ones here. Love your necklace, and your ideas, and especially your blackberries. Great colour...