I used up my stash of hand spun and/or natural dye yarn to cover this railing. While it’s fine, it doesn’t go with the style of the rest of the house…. and the wool quota was running critically low. Real wool has such a beautiful depth and shine. the northwest window has a beautiful even […]
What to do with a quite beat up kitchen in a pandemic. Some fun paint and “shale” waterproof contact paper to update it for the time being, and something fun I would never do on nice new kitchen cabinets. Next up is a nice foggy blue tile on the backsplash and island, but that is […]
It’s been a while, repeating patterns. I used to make a lot of these, they are incredibly tedious to make by hand and I don’t have a light table these days. I got a piece of tech that replicates drawing on paper, and the interest (obsession) has returned. The following 9 repeating patterns were made […]
I used to do really craft based work. Somewhere along the line I stopped working with fibre quite as much, and started using alternative materials. Mordant printing uses a thickener and heat to selectively place mordants (In this case I used alum and iron) into fabric, so when put into the pot, the natural dyes […]
So like everyone else in the world I’ve been social distancing, and playing my all time favourite video game…. Animal Crossing. And my favourite accessory in my favourite game is the acorn knit hat. So let’s make one! A quick hand-spun chunky wool crocheted and natural dyed with onion skin and alum.
Repurposed cotton shirts block printed with Alum and Iron, and natural dyed in Madder
I went to Flin Flon MB and Denare Beach SK for a week long artist retreat where I would be a guest artist and hosting a workshop. I had no idea what my next week would look like when I got there. My favourite thing about visiting new places is getting to know people who […]
Two centuries ago no one could have imagined that something as valuable as cochineal, ranked alongside gold and silver as one of the great treasures of the Spanish empire, would eventually be forgotten,” explains historian Amy Butler Greenfield, author of A Perfect Red. (source) When people think about natural dyes, they imagine dull sad brown colours that […]
Last summer I grew several marigold plants and dead headed the blooms as they wilted all summer. I decided to finally make a dye bath with them. Marigolds make a beautiful green/yellow dye, and I will be showing the instructions to permanently natural dye wool with dried marigold blooms. You Will Need: Yarn- 100% wool […]
Wow. North America has flipped upside down in the last 12 days. Up here in Canada we aren’t feeling the impact of the newest election as harshly or directly as our neighbours to the south, but there is a thick feeling of trepidation and anxiety in that we share a border with a highly armed […]
‘The Wool Fish’ at Rainbow Trout Music Festival, St Malo MB. This interactive textile piece was built under a canopy with a pully system. Participants could pull on any of the strings handing down from the outside, and 26 different areas of the puppets will move up and down depending on which strings were selected. […]
I had a few days off of work last week with my last being tomorrow so I had a full weekend of making an indigo vat and dyeing some puppets for an upcoming installation. I just finished mordanting them to overdye tomorrow and the rest of this week! Pre-mordanting is always my least […]
