My Garden List: Strawberry

Now when the Spring is close enough, it is time to get back to my garden, my true place of inspiration and enjoyment!

Located amidst the Southern Dunes, veiled in the spicy air of pine-tree forest.

That’s where I favoured the Natural dye-stuffs once and for all. And this is where my seasonal open-air batik and dyeing studio is situated.

Having been so much captivated by the process of printing with plant material on textiles I, however, learnt that the most of quite scarce available information on the subject features mainly plant material which is exotic for this area. And my creative process is strongly bound with that land of the Dunes, inspirationally and resource-wise.

So, following the concept of the local resource development, after sufficient familiarization with some exotic exponents, I got back to my trivial natural objects with renewed vigour to estimate their potential for my good.

– and who can learn enough about his local phenomena of the Nature! –  

My today’s List of the Day starts with Strawberry!    

That’s because I love it big time! Wild strawberry, both berries and leaves, are important ingredients for my herb tea recipe. And leaves from any type of strawberry are great for printing.

For the test I took

• strawberry leaves, nice ones
• a plain piece of silk, no mordants used
• a wooden stick to wind around
• a brass pot

So, it is just strawberry leaves and silk, no mordants used before or after; simmered in the brass pot for about 2 hours and left for 10 days unopened.

Please, watch the results!

These pictures do justice to the printed fabric sample, there both nice light-green areas alternating with distinct pink ones.

And can you see a heart pattern there! 

BTW, I am eating strawberries while writing!

Well, I can say that this one makes an excellent demo of Strawberry potential!

More entries to my Garden List on the way.

xo

xo

Весна подошла вплотную – самое время вернуться в свой сад!

cредь Южных дюн и соснового леса.

Здесь, в саду, моя сезонная батиковая мастерская; здесь работается как нигде хорошо, и здесь все ресурсы под рукой –прямо под ногами. Тут я обнаружила натуральные красители однажды, на них же и остановилась.

Веяние последних лет в области натурального – Эко Принт, процесс контактной экстракции натурального красителя прямо на окрашиваемую поверхность – на самом деле не так уж хорошо и подробно описан. Чаще всего в отношение Эко Принта встречаются упоминания экзотических растений, никакого отношения не имеющих к моей эко-системе. Это огорчает, потому что процесс контактной экстракции натурального красителя меня очень увлекает.

К слову, это определение получилось у меня на ходу. Надеюсь, теоретически мощно подкованные коллеги могут такое принять.

Этот самый процесс имеет столько переменных, просчитать достоверно которые невозможно и от которых драматически зависит итог крашения, и вероятно самый верный путь к его пониманию – это многократное повторение наибольшего количества вариантов, сделанное своими руками, на своих материалах, в своих специфических условиях, и т.д.

Собственно, уже имея определенное знание этого процесса, я и начала вести этот блог как некий дополнительный метод упорядочить свои результаты и поделиться тем, что уже знаю, с теми, кому это интересно.

Я твердо убеждена, что нужно в первую очередь знать и использовать свои местные ресурсы. Поэтому, вволю наработавшись с экзотическими материалами, я с двойной решимостью возвращаюсь к своим землякам, чтобы еще раз пройти по списку и обратить внимание на их потенциал.

Первой в списке выступает Клубника!

А также земляника, неотъемлемый ингредиент моего травяного чая.

В опыте участвуют: кусок натурального шелка, листья клубники, латунный таз и деревянная палочка, на которую наматывается образец, переложенный листьями; варю все около двух часов и не разматываю около 10 дней. Протравы никакие не применяю, Ph не меняю; вода дистиллированная.

Результаты – прошу обозреть фотографии выше. Должна сказать, что фото действительно близки к реальности: просто очаровательная комбинация светло-зеленого и розового. Каким-то образом сложился орнамент в виде сердечка! Это меня от души порадовало.

В следующих постах – далее по списку из моего сада.

А также, я продолжу редактировать предыдущие посты, добавляя часть на русском.

Приглашаю всех, кому интересна эта тема, к диалогу! Оставляйте, пожалуйста, свои комментарии, даже если это просто “спасибо” или “привет”!! 

Euca Works

In my childhood the most popular home remedy for cough was inhalation of eucalyptus vapors obtained either from the oil, or from the dried plant material from the drug store. Ever since then, this method has seemed to me the most pleasantly smelling physiotherapy.

As an adult textile artist I found that dyeing with eucalyptus is quite popular midst the Natural Dyers – no wonder, those nice red to orange prints are so tempting with their vividness on the background of not-so-easy-to-get bright colors from the other natural materials.

Driven by my natural curiosity, not that long ago, I started looking for a chance to try this exotic dye material myself. Since I live in a hundred perсent eauca-free environment, I was somewhat restricted in sources for the testing material.

My very first experiments with euca happened to have unexpected results, if not frustrating. Not only did they bring my childhood memories of the multiple chest colds, but they also differed dramatically  from what was promised by the highly praised source.

Gradually my childhood memories shifted to more pleasant tonality, and I started to get some understanding about cause and effect:

The main fact to be taken into consideration is that the euca is not a local plant for this area. Thus, various plant material, dry or fresh, sprout or mature, from any of the 700 eucalyptus species, are unobtainable. Which means the main condition of getting truly amazing results is infeasible.

Step by step, pulling my theoretical knowledge and summarising my further practical results, I seem to have finally figured out the essence of the matter for myself.

While the most of the Natural Dyes are adjective, and we need hardly mention that chemistry rules here, the dye obtained from eucalyptus is substantive, i.e. the one that dissolves in water. This means that you can get color from eucalyptus simply by processing the plant material with water.  

The reason for not getting the right color, or no color, is having the wrong (of all the 700 species) euca type  as the dyeing material. By the type I mean both wrong specie and/or wrong part of the plant. As simple as that. And no magical recipe ( I hoped so much to find one!).

Any additives to the process can only enhance the present dyeing quality, but it is not possible to switch, say, from no-color to red. This conclusion I got based on my practical drills so far.   Now I am glad I can render some visualization here.              

 I have been lucky to get various euca species plant material at my possession, so I decided not to miss this opportunity and run a comparative  visual test, which I think might be of interest for the guys who do not have euca in their list of endemic plants.

For the test:     I have chosen sample leaves according to my understanding. Considering the shape, size, etc. of the leaves and branches, one can tell these are different species. No taxonomic classification, sorry!

The clear water with salinity as low, as 61 mg/dm3,  was boiled and poured over the leaves (the TDS measured with the meter). The leaves were left for as short as 3 to 5 min, just to cool down enough to put my fingers into. No mordants or modifies used.

I took a piece of viscose for this test, as it is known to be the most difficult surface to treat with natural dyes, as it has the least affinity for the plant dyes. I assumed that obtaining distinct prints that way would not be possible and I wanted to skip the prints part, as nice euca prints are already a well-known phenomenon today. And my idea for this test was to observe a substantive dye extraction and not be carried away by the artistic part.

As it is seen from the pix above some leaves are just over full with dye; it looks like the dye is already there on the surface. Some are just neutrally colored. 

The following was actually a surprise! Meaning, I assumed the dye should be easily obtained. But, Gee, that was fast!

In less than 2 min a leaf started bleeding bright red color! A minute later another specie bled vivid orange… What can I say? The expriment could have been terminated right there, for I got the proof for my guess-work.

The neutrally colored leaves below did not yield any dye ever; even after 1,5 h simmering there was no coloring effect worth mentioning.

Meanwhile, the dye extraction continued and more of the leaves yielded their red and orange shades on the cloth; no heat applied or anything.

And this only after a few minutes spent in hot water! What about an hour or a day soaking? Unbelievable!

All the above pix were taken before simmering, during a really short period of time from 7 to 15 minutes, I guess, when I was taking the leaves out of the water they were soaking in and arranging them on the cloth surface.

This, usually preliminary part of the dyeing process, in this case turned out to be a most informative and obvious and I decided it states the point all-right. So, I am skipping the after-simmering illustration.

Well, I assume that the above enlightenment  along with my sheer amazement, looks probably ridiculous to the guys who grew under the shade of the euca tree forest.

If I were a child of such forest, or at least had an eucalyptus tree or two in the area near by, I would definitely stick to the euca species as my major dyeing plant!

But, as the Reality stipulates otherwise, I am getting back to my lovely local endemics, not so approachable at times, but surely so promising! 

Back to My Studio! Hurray!

I have just returned from an over a month long most fabulous car journey. And yet, it feels so great to be back HOME and  get down to work! 

With a minor break for the Winter Holidays, of course!

As much as I am overwhelmed with the current plans for my studio work, I’d like to turn to the nearest past and share some of my fresh experience, as posting on the way was hardly feasible, and I don’t wonna miss this one.

And not to forget, this is a DIARY, in no way a THESIS; the main idea here is to register facts from the Natural Dyeing practice my being just a humble apprentice in the ancient art of dyeing with the Nature. Although some of my findings might as well be  valuable for the fellow apprentices!

      Up in Lithuania with my dear friend Ina we had a dyeing session for which we used mostly local plants from the area with a small exception of  a few euca leaves from the sauna broom. For fabric, we took silk, cotton and cotton jersey.

The method  of the fabric pretreatment we used, is a part of the dyeing technique I developed for my batik works quite a few summers ago; which could very well add to the subject matter of an enthralling demonstration!

All was simmered for about 2 hours in the dye bath with the same plants we used for printing. The next day the bundles were unrolled first thing in the morning.

Gratifying is the fact that Celandine and Strawberry combination yielded a really bright, multi color print. And in comparison to the  effect we got from the euca leaves, the Celandine gave more complex and deep color. 

 

So far, Celandine (Chelidonium majus) holds its honorary position in my Preferences List of the local plants for yielding bright complex colors; although being a subject to further testing for wash-fastness.

 

Shown is the piece of  silk :

 

 

 

A Test for the Wash Fastness

As the Natural Dye Stuffs exploring process is so gripping it is so easy to get drifted away in search for the perfect print.

You set up test after the test, bundle after the bundle, and each time you really get more and more exciting results; sometimes yet faults occur but those serve only to urge forward the maker.

But on some point you wanna get an idea of how much you can actually rely upon your results. How long would last this color, or effect? If a color shift would happen within a time? If yes, what to expect then? 

Even if it is a framable art, or a wall piece, you would not appreciate the image varnishing in half a year, not to mention the surprise for the clientele…

Should I mention the wearables? Taking into consideration the amount of work it takes to create a decent piece, it’s kinda undesirable to get the colors bleeding after the wash, or any other discrepancies between your result and the quality standart.

 

So, no matter how much I enjoy getting a nice natural print, I have been spending quite some time on testing my dyed and printed results for all sorts of treatments. 

 

And one of the first tested objects proved to be worth the time and effort invested in it!

Not long ago I posted some close -up shots of it on my FB page

and quite a few people liked it, which I appreciate a lot!

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I did not mention in my post though, that it was a cotton jersey top, an item subject to wearing and washing, and exposing to the direct sunlight!

The prints themselves were awesome!

I was going to run the test first and then consider the results. And, as I’ve mentioned before the test object proved good, so I’ll add a few words to this story to summarize the dyeing process.

The black color resulted from this dyeing session was a sheer surprise that day, as I was chasing the reds from euca at that time, and this was one of my many trials when I was getting anything but no red!

All sorts of brown and yellow shades. But Black! Really, did not see that coming…

Well , as I learnt later on,  from all the world’s huge variety of the euca species

I was lucky enough to have “a non-red” type at my disposal.

So, for this dye bath I used crashed dried euca from the pharmacy. I did not pretreat the fabric with alum.

I added a mighty rusted pipe to the bath, as dear Irit recommended me on the FB group to add some iron.

I assume the rusty pipe affected the dye bath ratio in kinda weird way!

For the prints I rolled the presoaked in water dried euca leaves of some local Crimea euca type, the origin is unknown. The bundles from this session were curing for about a week up to 10 days maybe before opening. And it was over a month before I washed the cotton jersey top in the washing machine with a mild detergent. Not to forget that I ironed it a with steam iron prior to the treatment!

The ready to go item did not lose any color intensity, nor did any color shift occur!

 

This is all as for the report on testing color.

I believe at present I will  follow this way of estimation of my dyeing results,

presenting nice prints and colors, if any, along with the reporting on

their fastness to different sorts of treatments.

P.S. Thanks to you my friend Maggie Drake, now I know first hand that euca does yield different sorts of red and orange shades. It’s all about the euca type you’re dealing with! Thank you, my dear friend! I appreciate it very much!

xoxo

A Brief Complement to the Last Post

 

My rather chaotic approach to the Natural Printing on Paper has resulted mostly in somewhat watery ghost images on the paper though nicely colored, at least to my mind, due to the presence of different metal scraps in the pile, as I assume…

 

As I was enjoying my dear FB friend Betty Eilat’s Experiments on Paper  album the other day, I realized a couple of things and got an idea,

(which I was unable to conclude based on my own practical results due to the lack of those regarding Paper! Credits to Betty Eilat!)

• The prints created via steaming and simmering differ;
• The difference is watery/blurry vs graphic/well-defined images;
• The blurry print could make a great background to print over a more defined one!

Right here I have to stop and declare, that I am fully aware of the possibility that somewhere someone has learnt this phenomenon long time before me; he/she may have been successfully using this approach, etc. By dwelling upon this topic I by no means am aspiring to be a discoverer! I am just committing to paper the sequence of my working process in this Field, so to say…

 

 

So, back to the subject.

1. I took one of my dyed papers with no vivid imprints;
2. took a few presoaked leaves;
3. a steam iron;
4. and a paper towel.

I iron-steamed the sandwich for a few seconds and got quite satisfactory results as for such a short period of steaming time .

? What if  it were  the real steaming! Wow!

It is just sometimes you spend so much time and effort on setting up some experiment only to  find yourself desperately disappointed with the outcome, realizing  that the approach has no prospects what so ever, so when a test as small  as this all of sudden yields  some promising results, it is really worth sharing it with whoever shares the same interests!! I think so .

What do you think, Betty?   

xo

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SecretsJealouslyGuarded, or the Jersey Dress Dyeing Session

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Hi, Guys!

Reading about the History of Textiles and learning about the role of professional Guilds in the Medeval society I came across with this notion:

jealously guarded dye recipes

and I just liked the words combination!

Anyway, I have given some thinking as to why I enjoy so much sharing my findings and results with like-minded persons? As to some reason for me it is the second amusement after the art making process itself. Why so?

Maybe, these findings and stuff coming free much like the Inspiration comes, and hence what is freely given should be shared the same way?

Have not yet come up with any firm idea as for that so far…

In the meanwhile I have some nice pics of the process and some determination to share my experience, if there is anybody wondering how I got that dress dyed!

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress

and the process it turned out the way it is

First of all, the plant material I used for this dyeing session

Dry Cotinus Leaves

Catalpa Leaves

Strawberry Leaves

 

The dry Cotinus leaves I gathered in the past November and kept all this time in a plastic bag, in a few bags actually. They seem to be doing well in plastic, so no need to bother and press them within a book, time and space saving!

The Catalpa leaves I gathered close to my house and pressed them in the magazine for a week or so before using. These definitely should be pressed flat and dried a bit before utilizing, much better colour yielding that way!

My mom’s strawberry leaves taken fresh from the plants.

Here it should be noted that everything was soaked in water the night before the dyeing session.

Plant Material

Some other plants/flowers were added the same day.

There are some Fern leaves ans Walnut leaves in the bucket and some Flowers.

Would you, please, excuse the lack of the flowers’ definition! 

I am sure the flowers are recognizable;

I’d only note that the orange ones are not much of an effect in terms of color and printing.

The Oak Barrel

This is my Tannins Source, the oak barrel where I keep the water for some of my projects.

I did not use the tannin water for this project though.

Just wanted to show off  my barrel!

The Start

READY, SET, GO!

The Start

Feeling as usually the Uncertainty of the Starting Point!

As our dear colleague Pat Vivod has recently noted at her FB page ,

I can stare at things a LONG time before I take the plunge.

Thanks, Pat, it’s good to know I am not an exception in this regard!

The Materials

A Note on the Process:

The Jersey Dress is 100% cotton and it’s been pretreated with Soy flower mixed with water about a month before the dyeing session.

The soaked plant material I spread out over a cloth to get rid of the extra moisture before further utilization.

 

The Leaves Drying

I spent about 10 eggs for this project!

Laying out the Leaves

The plant material was subsequently dipped into the egg yolk and placed on the fabric.

I have to admit that after first 5 eggs I quit separating yolks, and was utilizing the whole egg!

Laying out the Leaves

Laying out the Leaves

This was one time consuming process, I’m telling you!

Laying out the Leaves

Laying out the Leaves

After all it was rolled over a copper pipe, simmered in the buckwheat shells dye bath at the temp 80C for about 1,5 hours.

Please, don’t ask why the buckwheat shells! I just happened to have a bag full of those and decided to give it a try…

Left outdoors for another 10-12 days.

And this is the result you may see:

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress

The Jersey Dress!

 

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Ревностно хранимые секреты красильщиков! – Или одно трикотажное платье в работе.

 

Всем доброго времени! Читая об истории Текстиля и роли профессиональных гильдий в средневековом обществе, я обнаружила следующее определение: «ревностно охраняемые рецепты крашения» – интересно.

Задумалась, отчего же мне так нравится делиться своими находками? Поняла,  со Средневековьем меня ничто не связывает.

 

Теперь о трикотажном платье.

 

На фото представлен весь процесс, в результате которого у меня получился такой дизайн поверхности.

 

Платье из х/б трикотажа;

Растительный материал: листья скумпии, катальпы, клубники;

 

Листья скумпии были засушены в прошлом ноябре, хранились в полиэтиленовом пакете; листья катальпы я собрала недалеко от дома за неделю до крашения и держала в книге; листья клубники – прямо с маминой грядки.

Весь растительный материал был замочен накануне вечером, кроме цветов. Отмечу, что от оранжевых цветов (текома) в результате толку было мало.

 

В ведре листья папоротника и грецкого ореха.

 

Надеюсь, все растения узнаваемы, и можно простить отсутствие лат. названий!

 

Дубовая бочка – мой источник насыщенной танинами воды!

 

Итак, все подготовлено, и можно начинать. Платье предварительно, за месяц, было обработано разведенной в воде соевой мукой. Замоченный растительный материал разложен на тряпке, чтобы удалить избыток воды, прежде чем окунать в яичный желток и раскладывать по поверхности платья. На все ушло 10 яиц, после первых 5-ти я отказалась отделять желтки и использовала все яйцо.

 

Весь процесс раскладывания листьев и складывания платья оказался очень длительным!

 

В конце концов, окончательная версия была накручена на упор в виде медной трубки и после этого тушилась в ванне из гречневой шелухи при t=80C около 1,5 ч. и в дальнейшем была выдержана 10-12 дней на воздухе.

 

Получившийся результат вы можете видеть!

 

 

The Silk Tree Dyeing Session

The Silk Tree fluffs

This is a Silk Tree  (Albizia julibrissin) that I planted about 7 years ago. In our area we have very hot and dry summers (it has got even hotter for a few last years). The winters  are known to be mild and snowless, though in February the temp often drops below -15C / 5F and easily can stay at -23C /below 0F for a couple of weeks. Just enough to freeze some certain types of vegetation to death! That was (and still is) my concern as for the garden. Until this year we used to cover this tree for the winter, whereas last Fall I decided to give it a try and leave it unprotected for the winter, especially when it was over 3 meters tall. It seemed to have lived through the winter alright but  this summer’s unbearable heat and drought have definitely depressed my Silk Tree… Nevertheless, my tree stands tall in my garden all covered with gentle pink fluffs giving of the delightful fragrance all over the area!

Of course I had to try the fluffs for dyeing properties!

The Bundle

I rolled the bundle over a copper pipe, cotton fabric, silk tree fresh fluffs, and simmered in aluminium pot for about 2 hours, let it sit for about 10 days.

Sorry, you all patient people, who can afford 3 weeks and more for curing! I just wanna catch the most of the opportunities this season provides for My Raw List of the Local Dyeing Chances to further develop and elaborate it with the flow of  the time.

That’s when my Rolls will be left  for years unbundled!

The Silk Tree Fluffs in the Cotton Cloth

The Silk Tree Fluffs in the Cotton Cloth

I was really surprised to get such a bright color! Though these are the images of the just unrolled fabric which is still wet.

The Silk Tree Fluffs in the Cotton Cloth

My poor Fluffs! Look what happened to you!! 

The Silk Tree Fluffs Dyed Cotton Cloth. The Still Wet Version.

And now the Fabric, just unbundled and still wet,

The Silk Tree Fluffs Dyed Cotton Cloth. The Dry Cloth Version.

and after a few days, heat pressed and dry.

Well, I have no idea if this is any valuable information for the Natural Dyers. And what is more important I do not intend to make any scientific discoveries here! And I don’t think there is any good chances for that, as the Natural Dyeing existed long before all of us. Hence, most of the innovations talking in this field may sound similar to

“I invented the Bicycle!” sort of things…

But in this  Fascinating Field of the Natural Resources for Dyeing there are so many rewarding opportunities for the artistic application, not to mention the joy of communicating with the Nature!

And These I am determined to explore and describe! 

Hope you all are enjoying the change of seasons! xoxo

 

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Мое шелковое дерево –

я посадила около 7 лет назад. Наш климат примечателен очень жаркими летними температурами, еще более жаркими  в последние годы, и относительно мягкими и бесснежными зимами. Однако, зачастую пару недель в феврале может держаться очень низкая, до -23С температура, чего достаточно, чтобы заморозить насмерть нестойкие виды растений.

До недавнего времени мы прикрывали наше дерево на зиму, покуда оно не разрослось до 3-х м ввысь! Стоит мое дерево, все в цвету, источая аромат, меня радует! А где-то ленкоранская акация считается инвазивным видом!

Безусловно, я не могу не испытать цвет моей акации в части натурального крашения.

Беру: медную трубку, хлопчатобумажную ткань, розовые пушки*;

Варю/ тушу в алюминиевой посуде около 2-х ч и оставляю на 10 дней не открывая. Известное дело, есть очень терпеливые экспериментаторы, могущие ожидать до 3-х и более недель!

Я же боюсь не успеть сделать все намеченное на сезон.

См. Выше фото с результатами.

Честно говоря, яркость окраски меня потрясла! При том, что это хлопок и протравы никакие я не применяла. На фото –только что открытая ткань, все еще влажная. На последнем фото – ткань через несколько дней, проглаженная и сухая.

Однако, что стало с пушками!

Я разумеется, сомневаюсь, насколько эта моя информация может представлять интерес для опытных в натуральном крашении красильщиков! И уж тем более, не тянет она и на научное открытие. Сомневаюсь вообще в возможности таковых в области древнего ремесла натурального крашения, где всякое новаторство сродни изобретению велосипеда…

В данном случае я не преследую иных целей, кроме как описательно-повествовательных о Cвоем, ошибочно-пробном, в Натуральном Крашении, которое предоставляет столько возможностей для художественного приложения!

Надеюсь, всем по душе смена сезонов!

Рада комментариям!