Wednesday, April 29, 2009

all my colours


until now

:-))
lower left is onionskins
lower right is anthemis tinctoria. The larger skein is the first bath, the three smaller ones are the second. to their left is 1st: ironwater afterbath, 2nd vinegar afterbath. right over the three 2ndbath skeins is the ammonia afterbath
the other long skein, a greenish yellow or yellowish light green if you prefer are the flowers in the header of the blog
we call it moloha
upper left, 3 small skeins are the new twigs and leaves of pistachia lentiscus, we call it schoino, (schinus)the dark grey-green is ironwater afterbath, it changed in seconds- i pulled it out immediately.
the next two are 2nd and 1st bath.
next to the moloha is salvia.
all dyed by boiling the plantstuff first, straining then adding mordanted yarn
in the middle, on top of the others is eucalyptus bark collected on the beach, soaked in alcohol (clear) and then boiled- no mordant
the purple and lavender are from alkanet, soaked in alcohol, mordanted wool, various dyebaths, no modifiers-
the pink is from a spice bought in Athens called sumak
the man said it has nothing to do with the tree
it was dark red, i heated it up with water, and popped the wool in it (premordanted) the water was pink with yellow underneath, kept it simmering lightly for about twenty minutes and then let it soak until morning
the lighter pink is in the same bath, I just put the wool in and let it soak for four days. the temp here is between 15 and 20 degrees these days
the browns and ecru are tea, just to see what happens
I definitely need reds and blues, I havent found woad or indigoferas wild, still looking
I am amazed at the variety of yellows, the shades all look great, especially with other colours
a yes, I forgot the one which I called cousin of weld, it is reseda lutea and not luteola- giving a horseradish smell
it is next to the onions under the schinus

happy hunting




madder!



it is rubia peregrina(I think), there's tons of it around, there even is an area called "rizari" -Greek for madder -not very far away from here, near marathon



yes I am happy



it likes growing under other plants, or maybe it is because the sheep can't reach it in there.



the problem is that the roots are all tangled with the other plants' roots



it likes climbing up and getting tangled in the others branches



so it is a very together plant



luckily for me you can easily tell which are its roots from the colour



dark reddish brown on the harder, woody parts and yellowish on the newer softer parts.







there are also some spongy bits which are soaking separately


it took me a very long time to cut them up into small bits


the first water of the roots is orange-brown, I have kept it in a jar


the roots have been soaking for two days now and there was hardly any colour in the water until I started warming them up, no higher than 50 c


now it is brown


all light coloured parts are pink!


I'm improvising, since I won't have any mordanted wool for a few days


they are in 2 jars, the woody roots. one has part of a pillowcase (cotton) soaking in it since last night along with some oak bark. this has gone pinky-dirty-light brown


i'm tinkering, waiting and seeing


and sitting on my hands so I don't tinker too much, also I will wait for the heat to arrive before I gather more roots




Today I went alkanet gathering, from a different place than before



luckily for me Golden Helping Hands Greenfingers were there to help because there were lots

I am letting them dry so that I can knock off most of the earth before washing them tomorrow.

it was a good hunting day

Monday, April 27, 2009

transient beauty fugitive magic

Im glad I got pictures before the cutting of the grasses

a frenzied weekend

dyeing also

I am especially proud of my alkanna purple
my first attempt was grey.
the yellow is anthemis tinctoria
I will say hello properly later
this was to get it out of my system!
goodmorning

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