Best eco-friendly foot forward for the New Year
Experimenting with Eco-dyed textiles in preparation
for Southbroom Infants wall hanging project
I’ve
been blessed with the opportunity to develop and deliver several workshops to
produce a collaborative textile wall hanging in a local primary school. What a
thrill! I’ll finally be able to dust of my trusty tea vats and experiment with
a variety of dyeing mediums and techniques, namely, Shibori and bundle dyeing. I
will also be incorporating machine embroidery, reverse and standard applique to
the wall hanging.
Dyeing
- what’s happened so far…
I've
always dyed with Procion MX or Dylon dyes in the past but that was until I fell
in love with my allotment, growing and in a broader sense, nature. It hadn't
even occurred to me that what I grow and forage can be used to dye fabric and
is so much Eco-friendlier. Although natural dyes, mordants and modifiers
can be toxic, it lifts my heart to know that I don't have to worry quite so
much about the use of dangerous, toxic and often non-environmentally friendly
chemicals, plus they can be such a bloody faff!
This
morning I was out with my sweet Cockapoo dog Phoebelicous, foraging for the Oak
Galls I often see on the lovely, albeit muddy, walk that takes in the murky and
meandering waters of the river Avon. This has been a fruitful spot for me in
the past, foraging Crab Apples, Rosehip and Blackberries for my Christmas jelly
(jam).
Today
I'm starting with the Japanese tie dye, Shibori. As there's not a lot going on at
my allotment or in my garden now, I've ordered some natural dyes: Indigo, Birch
Bark, Alkanet, Goldenrod, Madder, St. John’s Wort and Safflower, I hope a good
selection of colours that I can experiment with.
Luckily
fabric doesn't need to be pre-mordanted when using Indigo, so I can crack on
and experiment whilst my foraged Oak Galls are bubbling away in the background,
releasing their Tannin ready to soak my left-over fabric in for more playing
later in the week.
I
really enjoyed experimenting with a variety of Shibori techniques, such as, tied
and stitch resist, Arashi, larch, running stitch etc. I welcomed the therapeutic
and contemplative task of required hand stitching for these techniques, but the
inner seamstress not being able to resist the pull of her sewing machine, I did
use it for a couple of Arashi experiments and loved the outcome, it was effective.
Experiments
Maki-age (tied resist)
Itajime (folded/bound/clamp resist)
Maki-nui (oversewn stitch)
Ne-maki (tied resist)
Indigo dye
Dye vat
Indigo dye and Shibori samples
A few
samples of Indigo dyed Shibori
Larch and tied resist
I’ve always found it a good idea
to experiment and feel through your ideas before taking on the final project, it’s
helped me understand what I need to change, improve and research before I commit
and take the plunge with final fabrics. I’ll be looking at other dye colours
and working the dyed samples next….
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