wordless Wednesday

overdyeing clay-dyed cotton

After yesterday's clay dyeing post, I decided to overdye my clay-dyed t-shirt using black walnut skins.  It deepened the color a bit but left the mottled look, which I like.  It's more towards a mocha color now instead of the beige/pink and I think it suits me better.  I really wasn't sure if it would work since the clay acts as a pigment, laying on top of the fibers instead of a dye that penetrates the fibers, but it did!

Silly me left it on the line to dry overnight and this morning it was frozen stiff.  It sort of cracked me up so I carried it around for a while, leaning it against stumps and giving it a ride on the swing.

When it thaws I think I'll do a little embroidery on it.

Have a great day, everyone.

clay dyeing cotton

A few weeks back, while I was busy slaking clay from the yard, I set aside a handful to use as a dye.  My instructor Nancy from the Woodland Pottery class I took had mentioned that it could be used as such, and I figured I'd give it a whirl.

I had a plain white t-shirt of my own, and a pale yellow shirt for my daughter to play with.  I found a how-to on Prairie Fibers' site, and I followed her instructions for immersion dyeing, mostly.

Much like any natural dye process, there was scouring and mordanting to be done.  I didn't have the recommended soda ash for scouring so I used washing soda instead.  The instructions called for tannin to mordant with and I used acorns since I had tons of those on hand.  I simmered them in water for about an hour, strained them out, and added my shirts.

After prepping the fabric, the clay is dissolved in soy milk and the shirts are allowed to sit in the mixture for a week or more.  Here's where I got a bit sloppy.  I probably added a bit too much clay, and definitely didn't stir my fabric around enough (I had a pretty narrow vessel, next time I'll use a more open bucket), as evidenced by the blobs of clay and bare spots on the fabric.

I let my shirts cure for about a week out on the line then rinsed them well...really well...it took some effort to get the clay off.  I brought them in and handwashed them, and I was left with a mottled pink/beige color.  I wondered how it would wash up in the washing machine, so I tossed it in with a load of laundry.  Since it was raining it also went through the dryer instead of being hung on the line.  I thought for sure that I'd be back to a plain white t after that treatment, but surprisingly, the pigment held.

The result is pretty interesting.  I really like the mottled look to it, but it's a little too close to my skin color for me.  I'm wondering what would happen if I overdip it in a different dye color, maybe a black walnut, just to deepen it.  I also thought of doing some Alabama Chanin-style applique work to it.  I'm just not sure.

Any ideas?

At any rate, not bad for a handful of mud.  I'd like to try this with again with a different color of clay.

Have a great start to the week, everyone.

new brooches and stones

I snapped a few quick pics this morning of the work that will be in my shop soon.  They're not the best shots but they'll give you an idea of what's coming.  I'll be adding them to my shop later this afternoon and they'll be available for purchase tomorrow morning at 10am CST. (which would be 11am eastern time, 8am pacific, etc.)

my shop: lil fish studios

Thank you to all who chimed in on yesterday's post.  It seems that announcing the shop update beforehand and giving you a preview works best so I'll continue doing that.  Thanks again for the feedback, I knew you guys would help me.

In this update there will be these needlefelted brooches...

...and some stones inspired by frost on the windows and light snowfall...

...and some earthy stones as well, and possibly another set or two if I'm lucky.

The shop update after this one will have some different pieces including some necklaces and needle felted sculpture.  I'm hoping to do a large shop update at the end of the month, just in time for holiday shopping, so please think of me as you plan for your shopping adventures.  :D

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a great weekend.

new work coming soon and a question

I've just finished a few of my needle felted landscape brooches and have decided that I'll be having a little shop update this Saturday morning at 10am CST.

my shop: lil fish studios

There will be a couple of brooches and a few sets of textural stones as well.  I'll be putting the listings up as I get them photographed and then they'll be available for purchase when they go live on Saturday.

For those of you that purchase from me, is it helpful to know in advance when I'll be listing new work?  Did the preview help last time?  Just try to determine if I should continue this way or just put new work in as I finish it.  I'd love your input.

Thanks everybody!  Have a great day.

wordless Wednesday

on the workbench

Work has finally begun on my holiday gifts.

These beads are from the clay I dug this fall and once fired will be stringing beads for my daughter.  Okay, to be honest I might keep a few for me to play with too.  I have a few other clay pieces worked up and I hope to have my first firing in the fire pit before we get any significant snowfall.(wish me luck)

Sonia did a nice post the other day about some simple and handmade gifts to consider giving this year, if you're looking for some inspiration.  I firmly believe that gifts don't need to be expensive to be appreciated.  A simple, thoughtful gift is much more meaningful and I'll take 10 minutes of thought over $100 spent any day.  (but hey, if husband is reading, that Wustof knife combines both...)

I've also been working on some wool brooches and am just finishing up the wood bases.  Each wool scene has to have a base that I feel goes with the scene, so it isn't quite as easy as just popping them in whatever I have on hand.  They have to be the right color and shape so I've been out at the saw and sander tweaking away.  (sometimes I drive myself crazy, but this is how I am)

The brooches, along with a few new stones, will be in my shop sometime this week.  I'll post once I know when I'll be adding them.

I'm be back at the workbench today after I finish my coffee and shake off this Halloween candy hangover.  (ohh Charleston chews, I both love and hate you)  There is much to be done in the next few weeks; holiday gifts, book projects, en masse mitten-making... the list is endless.  I'd better get to it.

Have a good day everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Today I'll take a small pink bear, a flappin' bat, a lumberjack, and a dinosaur out to beg candy from the neighbors. 

I'll sneak candy from their bags for "inspection purposes". 

We'll probably all have tummy aches. 

The dog will cringe when I find that lobster hat, and shoot eye daggers at me when I put it on her, again.  We'll roast those pumpkin seeds and snack on them the whole week.

In short, we'll have fun.

Hope you do too.

Happy Halloween!

random thoughts on a Friday

Just a few random thoughts at the end of a busy week.

I love this idea of Julie's...for anyone wanting to have a handmade holiday but aren't sure where to start or just need a little motivation, this just might be the ticket.  Knowing Julie, it will be amazing.

This guy and his talented feet kind of blew me away.  I can barely walk with mine, and he's making chess pieces with his.

I miss the days when kids could bring homemade treats to school.  Where are the sticky popcorn balls and pretty homemade cupcakes?  Can we get back there please?

This article comes off as a little "you kids get off my lawn" but I enjoyed it anyway.

I can't decide what I want to add more to my ultimate christmas list, a foraging trip with Steve Brill, a new workshop, or a nap.

I've had four kids, so how did I forget how difficult the 2 year to 3 year old transition is?  Shouldn't I be way more relaxed about it by now?

I've been (finally) playing with the clay that I slaked from the yard.

Snow is coming.

There are 57 days until christmas.

Yikes.

Have a great weekend everybody.

wordless Wednesday

shop update today

I'll be having a small shop update today.  These textural stones, and others, will be available for purchase at noon cst in my shop.  The stones are viewable now if you'd like to have a look, and will go live at noon.

lilfishstudios : shop

Next week there will be a brooch or two in the shop and maybe a few other things, if all goes as planned.  I'm hoping to have shop updates more regularly over the next few weeks.  If you haven't been able to grab a set of stones or a brooch, but have wanted to, hopefully this will give you more opportunity to do so.

Now off to work with me!

Have a great day everyone.

a Stash Happy: Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the giveaway for a copy of Stash Happy: Felt.  I loved reading your comments.  Sounds like a lot of you have your hands in projects right now, and that's fun.  I wish I had a copy of the book for each of you, but alas...  

The book is available both in Lark's Bookstore (which you should check out, there are sooo many great looking books) and on other book sites like Amazon, if you'd like to pick up a copy for yourself. 

Now, drumroll please....

The winner is

Laura A 

Congratulations Laura!  I hope you find some fun projects to work on!

In other news, there will be some new textural stones in my shop soon.  I'll be putting previews up in my shop today and tomorrow and the stones will be available for purchase tomorrow at noon, cst.  (You'll see the listing go from saying "Coming Soon" to a priced listing)

I hope you all have a great start to the week.

Happy Monday!

when life hands you green tomatoes

With below-freezing temps headed our way it was time to pluck the last of the green tomatoes from the plants.  I assigned the job to the wee ones and it was one they really enjoyed.

Especially when they found happy smiling green tomatoes.

They picked several pounds of tomatoes and I promised I'd make a pie.  Because when life hands you green tomatoes, you make green tomato pie, right?  And fried green tomatoes, and piccalilli, and green tomato bread, and and and...  They're far too precious a commodity to toss to the chickens, though the little sneaks did manage to grab a couple.

The pie was quite good and was well-received.  It tasted very much like an apple pie with a consistency that reminded me of rhubarb.  A splash of apple cider vinegar lent a nice tartness to it and countered the sweet.  I would (and am expected to, like asap) make this again.

This is the recipe I used for the pie, and I always use Martha Stewart's instructions for the crust. (though I don't have a food processor so I do that bit by hand).  A note about the recipe, even though I used roma tomatoes, which aren't very juicy, I did add extra flour as suggested by the recipe reviews.  The filling turned out great, not too runny, just right.

Delish!

Do you have any tips for using up the remains of the summer garden?



dyeing (and drying) the rainbow

I found two bottles of dye in my workspace this week that I had forgotten about completely. (you do this too, right?)  There was a turquoise blue and a yellow and I really needed some more yellows in my arsenal so I grabbed some wool and did some dyeing.  I have just a bit of undyed wool left, but by dyeing over some dyed wool that I had on hand already, and had too much of in some cases, I was able to get a pretty wide spectrum of colors.  It was a good way for me to use up the two bottles of dye and to get some mileage from my existing stash o' wool.

Some day I hope to use only naturally dyed wool in my work, I think it's part of my path, but I have to admit I love seeing these bright colors hanging on the line.

Have a colorful day!

behold the chokecherry

Before I moved to Minnesota, I had only a vague notion of what a chokecherry was and never had I tried one.  My husband, who grew up here, talked of having chokecherry jelly and recounted popping the astringent cherries in his mouth as a kid and trying not to pucker.

We had been here almost two years before I discovered that our woods held a number of these trees and another year still before I tried my hand at making anything with the cherries.  My first batch of jelly wasn't much more than sweet, not what I expected from these notorious little fruits.

This year I was able to pick a good amount of cherries before the birds or bugs got to them, and made a chokecherry syrup.  To counteract the astrigency of the cherry, it's important to wait until they're black without a trace of red, and to add lots and lots of sugar.  Now, I did both but my syrup still had a rather medicinal taste.  Not unlike Nyquil, actually.

I tried making a bubbly drink by adding some club soda and got something akin to um, bubbly Nyquil.  I figure my only recourse at this point is to make an alcholic drink of it.  Enough vodka in there and I probably won't notice the taste at all.  Or anything else for that matter...

I was a little more successful with my other chokecherry experiment.

I look pretty dangerous here, don't I?  You may think I'm all sweet mushrooms and soft wool but I have a darker side.  And a knife.  And mom gym shoes.

Yeah, I'm scary.

One of our chokecherry trees had fallen this summer and I finally got around to hauling the wood into the barn for drying.  I cut off some of the smaller limbs and thought I'd try dyeing with the bark.

I used one of my old kitchen knives to strip the bark (a draw knife is on my list of wants, but what I have are old kitchen knives) from the limbs.  I tore the strips of bark into pieces and simmered it in some water for about an hour.  The water had taken on an orangey color and the house smelled like earth and cherries, which I didn't mind.

I drained the dye and added a piece of unmordanted, scoured silk and wool.  The resulting color is a warm tan, sort of like buckskin on the silk and a pale tan on the wool.

It's tan, which isn't hard to come by with natural dyeing, but it is quite lovely, a nice shade for autumn.

How about you?  Have you tried chokecherries?  Did you pucker?

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Stash Happy: Felt - a giveaway!

A few months ago I contributed a couple of projects to Lark's new book, Stash Happy: Felt.  I love the concept of this book, as it looks for ways to use up some of the scraps we as crafters inevitably end up with,and if you're anything like me, hold on to because there just has to be a project out there for them...

I show how to make a penny rug bouquet and a felted mushroom terrarium using scraps, but there are so many adorable projects in this book!  It's really such a delightful book to flip through and many of these projects are on my list to make for the holidays this year.

I think you all would enjoy it too, and the kind folks at Lark have given me an extra copy to share!

If you'd like a chance to win, just leave me a comment on this post. 

Tell me what handmade gifts you have in the works, or tell me what kind of craft book you'd like to see written, or just say hello. 

Please be sure I have some way to contact you, should you win.  One entry per person, please.

I'll ship worldwide and will announce the winner on Monday, October 24.

Good luck!

This giveaway is now closed.  Thanks to all who entered!