Malus sylvestris

Indigo Dye Raw Muga Silk Yarn
Indigo dye scrim etc.
Raw Muga Silk Yarn
Scrim, cheesecloth, etc.
I just love that name Malus sylvestris! It's so close to malice, it makes me think of trees could have malice, well it kinda leads one's mind to old children's fairey tales of walking in the woods and tree limbs suddenly reaching down and grabbing frightened unsuspecting children! It also makes me think of little trolls hiding around every corner.

Anyway, as per Nan's suggestion I've been dyeing parts for my quilt with natural dyes, indigo, quebracho black, and quebracho red onto cheese cloth, scrim, raw silk muga yarns, wool yarns, and more. The scrim came dyed a drab color, I picked it up at Hancock's years ago and have no idea where to purchase more. The cheesecloth I found in my stash of fabrics.

Surfacing Again


Here's a shot of the fabric before I cut it into two pieces and then applied more paint, and now you know why I thought it needed more paint - there was just too much white space as it were.
In the larger view you can see a few dragon flies, these were created using a stamp and the same quebracho black natural dye extract.

Surfacing Again


Hmmm well one could take that to mean several things! Actually I've been surfacing fabrics. Here's a piece, well two pieces, that I rust dyed last week, and now I've cut the fabric into two pieces and am working on different colorways. They both need more rusting, there's also some bits of natural dyed coloring on the fabric surfaces - applied with stamps - mostly quebracho black I believe. I started with natural muslin 7878 dyers cloth as my base. The top fabric has a gekko shape that was created using a stamp that had been dipped in quebracho black with a binder (gum tragacanth)

Forest Floor


The fabric after todays application of shiva paintstiks.


This is where I left off with the fabric was about three years ago.



My next project, it's been three years in the making it's so hard to believe that I started this piece of art cloth about two months before my mother suddenly died! I'll be pushing the surface of this piece for some time to come, I'm thinking that it needs to be compost dyed and maybe even rust dyed. So far the fabric has been painted, stamped and I've applied some shiva paintstiks.

Well

This is what happens when you don't stitch things down right away, when you come back later even though you have photos etc... it just comes out completely different! It's probably not as bad as I currently think it is, yes those bits of yarn are stitched down already, I just keep looking at the piece and thinking Holy Cow what was I thinking! It's gonna be a LOT of work to get this bad boy where it needs to be - in order for me to be happy.

Natural Dyed Trims Etc

I just put a bunch of naturally dyed silk ribbon, trims, and yarn bundles on my etsy.com store You can view them over here http://www.prairiefibers.etsy.com/ I put up spring colors which really help to beat the winter doldrums!

Each bundle consists of 18-22 strands that are approx 1 yard in length. This is a photo of three bundles, all dyed with cochineal and or cutch! Some bundles contain pearl cotton that has also been dyed with natural dyes.

Highlights


Or Darklights, Brenda and I decided that the left side needed to be darker, well she actually decided I needed to cut off one third of the quilt, the left side to be exact, can we say chest pains anyone? Anyway... I'm not putting the branch parts on yet, first I'm working on the lighting issue more of the "light streaming through the tree canopy" feel, if I don't do it now and go back in later it'll end up looking like the lighting was an after thought. I pretty much have the branches resolved.


As it is the quilt, several pictures ago, looks great, but I want it to be stunning which means many many hours of stitching, hand sewing, bits of fabric, threads, fibers etc... to make this piece really sing. I've been rounding up all of my pinks, carnation pinks, peaches, and hot hot pinks for the crab apple blossoms. I have a beautiful fleshy pink dupioni for the whites of the blossoms. And I started gathering various greens and yellows. Going through my pile of silks has made me see that I'm very low on greens, time to start dyeing again, and the timing couldn't be better as this weeks Natural Surfaces Challenge is Sping Green!


Labor of love - this one's going to be a LOT of work!

More Yummies


Well in between bouts of bookwork I've been working on my latest creation - see picture in previous post - I decided to take a moment and post some pics of more naturally dyed goodies, I call these Prairie Seeds. http://www.prairiefibers.etsy.com

Seems those spring time colors are very enticing! I can't blame you as I've been working with bits of pink and yellow myself the past few days, it's been a long winter at this point. Todays batch includes plenty of pinks for those springtime blossoms!

Tendrils


Well I've recieved some really postive feedback on this piece, here's a detail shot. The ones I love best describe the upper area as tendrils, another was the piece looks as if you are looking up at a decidious forest canopy!



I think I'm going to call the piece Malus sylvestris or the common crabapple. I had to stand on a chair in order to get a photo of the piece (see my feet ;-0), and Oh I forgot to turn on the marco, hence the reason it's blurry.




I haven't stitched down the raw muga silk thread yet, I'm thinking it's too yellowish but if I use a top thread that is a bluish brown color that should make it look more like an actual branch.