MORE ECO DYEING

Eco dyeing has sure made me a lot more observant of the plants in my neighborhood. Reading through India Flint's book, Eco-Colour, I have learned that a lot of the plants she uses for dyeing and prints just aren't plants that one can find here in Colorado. Eucalyptus, for example, sure won't find that here. But it gives such a lovely orange-red color. Never fear, it's a favorite of florist so I went out and bought a bunch, came home and started a hot bundle using a piece of ivory colored silk. I probably did not steam it long enough, but I did get some lovely red prints.

 Kind of like the green ones too, but wish I would have left it to steam longer so I would have gotten more of the red color.

 For this print I used a scrap of habotai silk that I had dyed in onion skins many years ago. It was just a very pale yellow to start with. I bundled up aspen leaves (most plentiful in Colorado) and some small red leaves from a bush outside my house. Wish I knew what the name of the plant is, but it yielded a lovely red color. Aspen prints are very pale but did provide some green.

This next piece is my favorite. Started with another piece of the onion skin dyed habotai silk and this time wrapped some lavender sweet peas in it. This was a cold bundle. Didn't get any of the lavender color, which I have gotten in the past, but I love the lovely greens and khaki colors. And most of all I love all the wrinkles in the fabric and the striations from the rubber bands. I think I will leave it as is, not press out the wrinkles, and use it for texture in a landscape piece.

Looking forward to the fall when the aspens, oaks and maples start turning colors. I'm sure they will yield some rich color for my dye pot.