ANOTHER LITTLE BISCUIT

Australian Eco/Fiber Artist India Flint calls these Biscornu 

which I believe is French

 and translates to biscuit.

I learned to make them in one of her delightful on-line classes.

BTW,

her newest online course starts Feb.1 and I believe you can still enroll

here. 

I love making them and teaching others to do the same.

They are a great way to use up scraps of fabric and special threads.

This one was made from a few eco-dyed pieces I had in my stash.

The fabrics were a bit too plain for me so I added a little embroidery.

And then my favorite last step is to pick out a button for each side.

I believe the one in the top photo is wood 

and the one here is the back side of an abalone button.

Every time I stick a needle or pin in it,

I smile.

They are just so cute.

EASTER WISHES

A long standing tradition in our home is to dye Easter Eggs,

each year trying to come up with a different artsy fartsy idea.

I had this seen and read about this one several years ago and tried with my son,

though it wasn't quite successful,

and always wanted to give it another go.

This year I'm in several online classes with Australian Artist India Flint,

having just enrolled in one more last week called 

in place:: sailing the armchair around village well.

She created this course to help us thru the isolation of the Corona Virus,

and I'm so enjoying it;

watching her and following her lead.

One of the projects were these Eco-bundled eggs

and I was so pleased how they turned out.

My daughter and I each made 6,

and this is how they looked before we hard-boiled them below.

We chose a 6 minute hard boil.

You can see here the lovely color from the onion skins,

I grabbed the nearest bowl to place them in to cool down before the big reveal.

This is a clay piece I made over 40 years ago at Cypress College under the tutelage of my mentor

Professor Robert Hardy.

After I threw the bowl on the wheel I added a slim throw neck to elevate it,

then allowed it to dry out a bit (leatherhard stage)

and Robert suggested I carve a design into it.

He was always pushing me harder then I would push myself.

Sadly he is gone now but I learned so very much from this wonderful man.

The first one Danielle opened was a big bust,

hardly any pigment in the shell,

so we were pretty disappointed but luckily all the rest looked lovely,

each one a bit different then it's neighbor depending on what we bundled it with.

I will definitely do this again with my grandbabies.

I was left with a very pretty selection of cotton and silk embroidery string to stitch with.

I think I might bundle resist some of it and put it into my indigo bucket.  

We'll see.

I just placed the threads a top another India Flint project I'm working on called

29 Days in February 2020,

only 2 months behind on this one.  :)

And below you can see what I did with the leftover dye liquid.

I tossed a faded out sweatshirt into it which shocked my fashion conscious daughter,

ha ha,

and hoping for the best.

If she only knew all the crazy shit I do.

LOL

29 DAYS

A STITCHING AND DYEING ADVENTURE

Day 2

Because I never do anything in the order you are supposed to in an On-Line Workshop,
my Day 2 was different then everyone else's.
Plus I can't give away too much info.,
just show you the highlights.
After all,
this is India's class.
So Day 2 (for me) was something she calls a Diagonal Fold.
I had a couple of alright ones from this experiment,
but only the one at the top that I truly loved.
And of course I did a few more then I was told to do,
cuz it was hard to stop!

As I said,
I loved the very top one,
actually it's one of my best from the entire class.
The others are ok I guess,
but not as brilliant as the ones India was doing in her online demos.

One of the things I should have followed

 was using only distilled water instead of the hard water from my tap.

But I was so anxious to start I didn't want to take the time to go to the store to buy it.

Turns out water has a lot to do with how the dyes react to the cloth,

India explains it so much more scientifically then I.

And so does washing your fabric before you try this.

All my wool pieces were not washed beforehand,

I didn't want to chance felting them,

but next time I will launder all.

The good news is that in this Adventure we needed a lot of contrasting fabrics,

so the lighter marked ones will look good next to the darker ones.

In case you are wondering what kinds of fabric these examples are the top one is a crepe silk.

Next is cotton, then a silk/wool mixture, cotton, and then a thin silky mesh.

29 DAYS

A STITCHING AND DYEING ADVENTURE

Day I

For the past 2 February's,

Australian Artist India Flint has offered up the most wonderful online Eco-Dyeing workshops

that I've enrolled myself in. 

Last year it was called A Clearing in the Woods,

and this year 29 Days.

In both I've learned so much about eco-dyeing and slow stitching,

and am now working on both simultaneously.

The one from last year I work on in the evenings as I've been binge-watching

various series on Net-flicks, Hulu and Amazon,

sometimes staying up till 4 in the morning.

My newest favorite is Outlander on Net-ficks.

If you want to give it a try it's a bit hard to get thru the first Episode 

until near the end when is roars to life,

then watch out, you'll be hooked.

I'm a bit of a history buff so it's right up my alley based in 1743 Scotland.

So anyways I digress.

Back to this Feb's workshop.

These following pieces were my first attempts from Day 1

The leaves I used where found in my gutters after a big wind we had and were dried up,

so India taught us how to reconstitute them,

other vegetation plucked from my porch garden.

I felt my results were pretty blah on these two that were bundled together on wool/silk broadcloth,

and wool.

Note: we are not mordanting these pieces yet.

When I opened these next two that were bundled together I was a bit more pleased,

especially with the top one.

These were both on two different types of silks I found.

Note:  I did cheat. 

 The string I used to wrap bundles with had been re-purposed from a tye-dye demo 

I did last year with my students.

That's where the beautiful bright greens are coming from,

but the rest of the color is from my leaf choices.

I enjoyed my results on these next two as well,

both on cotton.

These are picking up a bit of greens and turquoise from the tye-dye string

and you can really tell where the Eucalyptus leaves are along edges.

And in these last two that were bundled together,

 I had no idea there was so much dye left in my bundling string.

I really dislike that patch of dark turquoise.

But I do like how my Boston fern printed along with some other plants from my porch.

These were fresh.

The good news is that I was only supposed to do one set for Day One,

 but I wanted to see how the same plants would work on various silks, wools and cotton fabrics.

So far the silks are winning big time!

Stay tuned for Day 2.

A SNEAK PEEK

About 2 weeks ago I posted about my online class I'm taking with India Flint.

I'm so excited to show you that I've started my embroidery around the Eco-Dyed pieces.

And it's so much FUN!

I'm enjoying the process so much.

I've been stitching about 3 hours a nite as I've been binge watching Designated Survivor

and it's so hard to stop so I can go to sleep.  

What's really been rewarding is using only Eco-Dyed embroidery threads.

And what's been good for me is that I've been working very spontaneously

(which I rarely do)

not knowing what each piece will look like finished.

I like it!

Didn't know I would since I'm usually so controlling,

but I'm too impatient to get to the stitching.

As a result,

 I'd had to some undoing and ripping out,

but I don't mind since it's so gratifying when something looks "right".

And Quite Liberating!!

FINALLY GOT STARTED

off-white cashmere baby blanket

This past year and a half I signed up for 3 of India Flint's online workshops.

The first was Bagstories which I showcased here several months ago,

and now I'm finally getting started slow stitching on the 3rd one called A Clearing in the Woods.

 Today I'm basting all these piece down.

If you are wondering about class No. 2,

I'm stuck on it right now and can't seem to move forward.

But I will cuz it's nagging at me. 

It was so much fun setting up to get started.

India had us cut 29 circles in wool, linen and silk

then fill each one with anything that might have pigment in it:

leaves, twigs, fruits, veges, rusty objects etc.

We bundled each one with embroidery string that would also take the dyes.

I posted the beginnings of the Preliminary Circles here

And here are the glorious threads from the bundles along with some India sent to us

on the far left.

Remarkable right?

And here is a delicious close-up of my favorites of the 29.

If you are wondering why the number 29?

After bundling we preserved these sweet little bundles in glass jars for a couple of months.

When February came we got to open one bundle a day 

for a special treat to look forward to.

So much fun with such wondrous results.

If you've never taken a class with India,

I highly recommend it.

NO. 3

This is my 3rd online class with India Flint this past year and a half.

India is one of the most fascinating people I've ever meet.

I took my first class with her several years ago up in Santa Barbara,

and have been a huge fan ever since.

She is an Australian artist, an eco-dyer, scientist, poet, fashion designer,

speaker of many languages, 

writer of numerous books now,

maker of music, animal lover and cook extraordinaire,

plus just so much more, as well as a very wise woman!

I've finished online class No.1 which you saw and I posted about 2 weeks ago,

Bagstories,

the embroidered bag,

and am in the middle of No.2 (turning a man's shirt into an amazing dyed and embellished apron),

and then am just starting No.3 here.

It's called A Clearing in the Woods or Putting up Preserves.

It's about slow dyeing, a canning process.

And oh what fun I'm having!

Here is all the windfall I've collected recently to work with.

The silk and woolen fabric circles I've cut for my little 29 bundles

(I may have cut a few extras),

one to be opened up each day in February as a gift to self.

The lengths of silk and cotton threads to bundle with

 and then to embroider with later in the class.

The misc. metals to be used in the bundles.

All salvaged.

The bundles.

Don't count them,

 I know there aren't 29.

I'm really bad with numbers

Ha!

And now the extra windfall to use for the dyes.

Woo Hoo, stay turned for periodic updates

BAGSTORIES

Towards the end of last school year 

I signed up for my first online workshop with superstar eco-dyer India Flint.

It was called Bagstories and we were hand stitching a Bento type bag (Japanese)

that India calls a Wanderbeutel.

She had us pull together and use an assortment of odds and ends from our fabric stashes.

I used the pieces below;

Eco-Bundled, Shibori w/ Rust, & Solar Printed.

Part One was to cut 50 squares of fabric, 

that I cut to 3" by 3".

If I ever make another bag I will go bigger to 4" by 4". 

Part Two was to sew them together into little pillows.

Then Part Three was to sew each pillow closed

and if you wanted to add some embroidery stitching.

Part Four,

 to arrange them in a certain pleasing pattern

and then to sew them all together.

I also added buttons to give mine a bit of a snazzy spark.

Some close=ups.

And tah-dah!

The finished bag!

Part Five was to sew it together like a Bento Bag,

which was super tricky and a secret not to be revealed!

Ha!

Other side.

And Part Six was to add a shoulder strap out of fabric.

But I wanted something different then the others in the class,

so I pulled out all my eco-bundling strings I had saved,

choose the ones that had the flavor of the squares and crocheted 2 straps,

tying them together into a top knot.

I also used the string to wrap around two "D" shaped metal rings,

then sewed the straps to the rings.

  To connect the whole enchilada I sewed the rings onto the corners of the bag.

The closure was the trickiest part.

It was optional but I did it because I wanted my bag to stay closed.

So again back to the strings where I messed around 

and figured out how to crochet two triangles

 that I sewed into the "V" shaped openings in the middle of both sides.

But there was a revolting development.

The bag wouldn't close right and looked funny so back to the drawing board,

and 3 triangles later I had a closure that actually looked good and worked.

And the perfect antique button finished it off.

Except,

one more problemo,

It wouldn't sit right.

So I found some plastic needlepoint stuff,

cut it to fit into the bottom just right,

then surrounded it with the most beautiful piece of silk eco-printed fabric 

from my friend and fellow fiber artist extraordinaire Michelle Hoffee.

And there it was, 

finally finished almost 7-8 months later.

I know,

I'm really slow.

All the other Bagsters have made at least 3 to my 1 but I'm just thrilled I even finished one.

YES!!!