Rust and Leaves

I think that this is my favourite ecodye so far. Wool dyed with eucalyptus windfalls via steaming. The red dye from the leaves is substantive, a chemical reaction between the protein of the wool fibres and the chemicals in the leaves. The rust creates a black permanent stain in a similar reaction.

Scraps from an old bunch of flowers left at a bus stop.

I've been experimenting with a scrap of silk and a few leaves that came to me via extra decoration in a bunch of flowers. The leaves where slightly purple and I suspected some sort of commercial dye given their sheen.

After 2 Hours of steaming this was the result, the natural pigments intermingling with whatever they were soaked in to create their lustre.

One of the things I love about the ecodye technique is that every piece is unique, each one an unsuspected gift of colour.

Wanderings

After the fire

A patch of bush land that was recently burnt off in preparation for summer. Ash will soon turn to green sprouts and new leaves. The girls are collecting charcoal for making potions and paint in the back yard with mortar and pestle and buckets of rain water.