Monthly Archives: July 2015

Eco printing highlights from an intensive week of study and experimentation!

Posted on by
3

Last week was super fun and super intensive, a whole week facilitating eco orinting through discussion, plotting and planning as well as actually spending hands on time in the outdoor printing studio, aka the garage! It all kicked off on Saturday when I picked up friend and fellow fabric enthusiast Caroline from Dublin Airport. We’d met in Portugal while participating in a Joan Morris residential workshop and almost immediately started planning for Caroline to come over here to study one to one, we also wanted to spend some time together experimenting. The main focus of our time together was to achieve clarity of prints and play with different ways in which to achieve good results on cellulose fabrics, the whole week was an absolute blast, many bottles of wine were consumed too!!!

Here are just a few of Caroline’s highlights in pictures………..

Caroline's eucalyptus prints on linen

Caroline's geranium and cranesbill on linen

A big smile from Caroline and a beautiful linen dress!

The shadowing around the neckline of this linen too printed through two layers of paper resist, another wonderful linen top from Caroline!!!

…… and a couple of my own results I’m particularly happy with!

Satin mordanted with Symplocos printed with eucalyptus

Symplocos mordant has helped achieve amazingly copper like tones on satin

Alder leaves and female catkins on satin

Contrasting colours from the same dye pot, don’t they just sing together?

Caroline's eucalyptus printed linen and my cotinus and rosebay willow herb seed pod printed cotton blend

On Tuesday while Caroline worked away bundling in the indoor studio I spent a lovely time with mother and daughter duo Cristina and Morgan, it was their first time eco printing. After a little discussion about what we would be doing we all headed off to gather our vegetation. Unfortunately the weather was not great early. In the day, the fields were really wet so we stuck to the lane and garden instead. Before lunch Cristina and Morgan got 4 satin scarves in the pot and in the afternoon we all made a stack of paper to print. Their results were super and isn’t Morgan a fab model?

Congratulations Cristina and Morgan, great job!

Morgan in front of the rose she used to print this scarf!

Finally for today, congratulations go to Margaret Hennessey who guessed correctly that dock leaves were used to print this experimental felt wrap.
I’m afraid that I forgot to bring it with me to town today Margaret but promise it’ll be in the post on Wednesday so it should be with you by the end of this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Felting, eco printing and notice of a competition!

Posted on by
4

I’ve been having a wonderful time at Clasheen these last few days, felting like crazy and then firing up the pot for my first eco printing session here since the beginning of April. It’s like a mini jungle outside at present, lucky then that many plants others consider ‘weeds’ give wonderful colour and interesting prints! Here’s a pictorial review of the dress I felted then printed with wild blackberry leaves (brambles), further down this post is an opportunity to win one of my eco printed wraps!

Using a Palm wash board to full the dress

Still wet but ready to print

I love the unbundling process!

V-neck to the front

Round neck to the back

And now for that competition, can you guess the vegetation I used for these prints???

Merino, silk, tencel and Firestar felted wrap

May be worn many ways

Shimmer from tencel and Firestar

Revealing the prints

Older leaves give more golden prints

To be in with a chance to win this piece please, please follow the instructions as written in this flyer, all comments to enter the draw need to be left on my Facebook business page but you don’t have to be a member to leave a comment. Good luck!
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Felting fun with Robbin Firth!

Posted on by
5
Thanks a million Anita for inviting the wonderful Robbin Firth of Heartfelt Silks to Ireland, I had such fun today learning different ways in which Robin and Harry’s palm wash boards can help in the felting process. It’s always good to up-skill!
During the course of the day each participant felted two pieces, first a beautiful merino and silk cowl then a gorgeous raw lock scarf. I’m particularly happy with the cowl that I made and know I can apply the technique we used for more complex clothing projects in the future.
I made mine totally reversible and like the way it may be worn in many different ways with different colours of embellishment showing.
It’s always good to work with Roo Kline’s fab hand dyed fibres! I selected some lovely yellow silk and green throwster’s waste from Anita’s class supplies then added copious amounts of Roo’s Firestar, sari silk threads and bamboo fibre on top. The result is a shimmering lustrous surface as seen in the below close up shot, lovely!

The final fun thing of the day was catching up with good friends Mairead and Ruth in the class as well as meeting facebook friend Juliette for the first time. I also met Anita’s students Jane and Laura, how this felting lark unites us all!!!
Thanks Ruth for taking this photo of me and many thanks once more to Anita, Robbin and Kirsten for all your help and inspiration!