ISLAND Hill House Residency, Day 2

Currently up in northern Michigan at the ISLAND Hill House, for a 2 week residency where I have all the time in the world for natural dyeing and cut paper!!!

For more info on ISLAND (The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art, & Natural Design), go here: http://www.artmeetsearth.org/



I'm in a beautiful log cabin in Mancelona MI, in the middle of the forest, with a dirt road leading up to the place.... It's like being in a prehistoric forest here, everything is so lush and moist and there are more ferns than I have ever seen in my life! I've settled in, claimed my space, skyped my girlfriend, and have begun mordanting! Only issue so far...found a giant bug in my sink. Had to drown it before removing it from the house. Ewwies.


Prehistoric!!

On the topic of mordants:
I've been reading about cold mordants for cellulose fibers. For a lb of fiber, it's 3 slow baths: a 3oz Alum for 12-24hrs, a 2tbsp tannic acid for 12-24hrs, and another 3oz Alum for 12-24 hrs. I put the first alum pot together last night around 5pm, rinsed it and begun the tannic acid pot at 1pm this afternoon. I think that means I'll start the next alum pot first thing tomorrow morning. If this works like it's supposed to, it will save a hella lot of energy and fuel (always good). All I'll have to do is plan ahead...haha.



I've completed my first Alum/Cream of Tarter mordant on a pound of wool/silk. It's now line drying! I've got a pot of silk and wool yardage for stenciling on cooking as I am writing this (I'm going to turn the picnic table into a print table). I brought the monogum with me for making the dye paste, and I think I'm going to try some highly concentrated dye baths in my small pot for coloring.

Of course the next step after getting things mordanted will be to start dyeing! I went out for a walk this morning and collected Queen Ann's Lace (to add to the carrot tops graciously left in my fridge), and some thistles. No idea what the thistles will do, but I figure what the hell, why not? I will definitely be testing the ferns in the area, I read somewhere that ferns give a rusty color?

As for flowers, there aren't many...... And there's a bunch of weeds I've never seen before (which I took pictures of and will be googling before I go out and pick them bare handed). I'll save them for later this week. There were plenty of roadside flower plants on my way up here, I'm going to have to go back for some of them (I think I saw some purple loostrife at one point). Lots of black eyed susans (practically useless) and hopefully some sunflowers.



I came up here with all the purchasable dyestuffs I've collected over the last 2 years-- Cochineal, Indigo (for the workshop in August), Osage orange, annato, madder, sandlewood, brazilwood, logwood, cutch, and some others, as well as dried dyestuffs like onion skins, nettles, dandelion, yarrow, st johns wart, turmeric, hybiscus. The ones I haven't tried before will be the first to be done. I'm planning to do full swatch testing of everything, beginning with the dyestuffs I haven't used before, which means I'll be getting out the copper and iron after-mordants at some point.

I believe that's it for this moment. Will probably need to do a thiox bath for the pound of weaving cotton I turned into skeins last night... ugh. At least I'll be outside when I do it.

Coreopsis Dye

Coreopsis Flowers give an amazingly bright and vibrant yellow color, that surprised me with how strong it was in concentration.

The recipe:

Mordant yarn with Alum and Tin
3oz Alum per Lb wool
1/2 oz Tin per Lb wool
2oz Cream of Tarter per Lb wool
1/2 cup salt

Dissolve alum, tin, salt and cream of tarter in enough water for yarn to move freely. Add yarn and bring to a boil. Cook a half hour and let sit for an hour. Rinse completely and hang dry.

The dye
Coreopsis is a 2:1 ration material to dyestuff. In my vat I had 5oz coreopsis flowers. I cooked them a half hour (any more and you'll kill the color from flowers). Strain them out, pressing the flowers against the bottom of the strainer to get out all the juice. Wet yarn (in this instance I was using Alpaca) and add to the pot. Bring back to a low simmer and cook for 45min. Rinse until the water runs clear and hang dry.

Holly Hocks

I did a dye bath yesterday of Holly Hocks. I'm operating under a new idea that fresh frozen flowers will dye just like fresh flowers (as opposed to dried flowers). So far so good. The holly hocks had been collected all summer and they dyed a beautiful dark purple (with a blue-grey lean). I've got black eyed susans, coreopsis, marigolds, and carrot tops all frozen and stock piled. Much better than drying everything.

Dyer's Garden

My dye garden is up and running! So far I've got:
-Madder
-Chamomile
-Daises
-Black Eyed Susans
-Lady's Bedstraw
-Purple Basil
-Marigolds
With more to come...

I put together a dyepot of wild daises today--I've set them in my pot in a black trash bag so they can sit and heat and steep... Seeing as I don't have a stove yet, I've got to do everything the hard way.

We've also got veggies...Sweet Potatos, tomatos, strawberries, boston lettuce, carrots, garlic, parsley, basil, sage, mint, green and yellow peppers, eggplant, blueberries, and broccoli.

Naturally Dyed Yarns on Etsy

Take a look at my new additions. I've added some naturally dyed yarns, as well as recycled t-shirt woven rugs.

Squidfire Summer Art Mart 2010

I have been asked to join one of my friends, the magnificent Mallory Steele at her vendor table! We will be selling book and woven goods, as well as naturally dyed yarns for your own projects. If you're in town, stop in and see us!

To dye, to sleep, perchance to dream!

The dandelions are taunting me. I just thought somebody should know. They've been out like little lions with their scruffy manes taunting me something fierce the last two weeks. I want to try a dye bath of just heads, no green. I believe it will be a pale yellow, instead of a yellow-green. This is the time of year when there are enough of the buggers to actually collect enough in weight to try it. Of course I've had no time to dye, not with all the work I've designed for myself. I really need to get on all that-- the last of the cutwork, finishing the first and beginning the second weavings, another book, designing and printing my show cards............ I know I can accomplish all of this, but it's not going to be pretty.

In better news, my website: katievota.com Still in construction, but it's serviceable.

Also, I'm almost certain I want this to be a predominately dye blog. If I update every time I do a dye bath, it'll be more consistent than when I remember I should update about whatever is in progress (lacking in-progress photos). So that's how it's going to go.