more extremadura colours

pursuing the colours I seem to be able to get with encina leaves (ilex oak) here in Spain and trying out more ..

abrambleleaffujisilk

a print of bramble leaves on fuiji silk soaked in iron water. this silk gives great contact prints and has a lovely handle.

afuijisilkwironmoredteail

the spotted prints are eucalyptus, and the yellowy colour is from corn marigold heads.

acornmarigoldstemfuji

without iron silk is a little anaemic, though those green marks are from the corn marigold leaves.

afuijisilkwironmore

but on this piece I have nice negative prints from the marigold stems anyway. I rolled it round a glass jar that had once held spanish chickpeas.

afujisilkcornm

on the milky merino it was more subdued

ammerinoironeucleaf

ammerinoiron

and indefinite

amilkymerinowrapironandcornm

but still very pleasing, I think.

so the obvious thing was to get sewing

bdressbeforedyeing

I had another go at the dress cut across the silky merino tube, a lot less complicated, but with a pocket. I had to use some previously dyed material for the sleeves as I didn’t bring much un-dyed of this with me, I wanted to concentrate more on cotton and silk

baperkylittle dress

it’s made a perky little dress, I think.

I also made a loose dress from the fuji silk,  inspired by my old Katherine Hamnet top

bhardtophot

it is cut much lower at the back and is revealing at the sides, but I reckon that’s fine for really hot weather if you are wearing a nice bra – or even a bikini – this is of course for the younger generation …

bfujidressdetail

the holly shaped leaves from the ilex oak and the bramble leaves and the corn marigolds have all printed really well on this dress

bsmvelvet

and they even printed well on the viscose and silk velvet.

so now, I am dyeing up all the remaining fabric that I bought, some wool gauze lengths for big scarves/wraps, lots of organic cotton, and two of those japanese type horn bags, tsunobukuro, I just needed to work out how to make them, for some weird reason; one is made from a strip torn off an old sheet, and one is teeny, in the silk/viscose velvet. so still boiling up the dye pot for the next couple of days, in between cleaning the house, ready for departure next wednesday.

 

 

4 Comments

  1. Hi Jane i am just looking in to your beautiful Prints whilst waiting for my Kiln to cool
    Whilst i once made clothes for my Daughters–i wish the book had been available then–i do not quite know how you find the time–but the Colours are so nice

    I press all sorts of leaves onto my Green work –and the Biscuit fire works well–i did once make paper on Silk doing the same Technique-and recently pressed the Onion Flower head–just love your Colours-thankyo

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