Textile Lecture - Abbotsford

Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber is giving a lecture this Thursday October 29,2009 at 7pm. The lecture is being held at the Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, BC. Admission is FREE.

Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber speaks on her book Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times. Dr. Barber illustrates how the economic engine of the ancient and early modern worlds was the fabric of industry and almost the exclusive province of women. Dr. Barber is Professor of Archaeology and Linguistics and co-chair of the Classics Program at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Craft swap surprise!

Last month,... no wait, in July! (wow! time flies!) I did a fiber swap on Craftster. I posted about it here. Anyways, my swap partner felt like she didn't send me enough, but I disagreed. Apparently I lost the argument because I found these wonderful items in the mail a few weeks ago (I know, I'm a slow poster! hehe)Once again, please excuse the terrible picture! The drop spindle is hand made! I haven't used it yet (school is keeping me plenty busy) but it is on my "to do" list! It was a very lovely surprise!

Silkworms!

A couple of weeks ago, my teacher brought in some silkworms. Unfortunetly I haven't had a chance to take photos of them, until now. But the exciting part about it is, they are cocooning!
The pictures aren't that great, but it gives you an idea of what's going on! lol They should be hatching into moths in a few weeks.

Small Update

There is some sad news to report, my computer completely crashed and I lost a year's worth of pictures, music, movies, bookmarks, etc, so all of the back logged posts I wanted to write are gone. But on the upside, my computer runs faster now! hehe
The good news to report is, we are in full swing at school. My first Surface design project is DONE woo! (it's due Tuesday) I'll hopefully have pictures on Wednesday to post, for your enjoyment. Other than that, we've been doing a lot of samples... and more samples. I'm hopefully going to be doing some natural dyeing this weekend, and I'll also be working on a simple medieval dress for an SCA event. (It's my first event). So stay tuned for more exciting things to come!

A trip down Memory Lane

I don't know about you, but when I was a kid when it was rainy outside, instead of playing video games and watching tv; we would make crafts. One of the things we made were Shrinky Dinks. A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a few people at Craftster that had made jewelry with this wonderful and exciting product. After being inspired by their work, I searched through my local craft store, but to no avail.

Yesterday I noticed I had a 50% off coupon that was about to expire and decided to go shopping. After circling the craft store about 3 times, in hopes of finding something that I "needed" and could save a few dollars on,... I looked up at a peg on the wall (that I had passed a few times before) and what did I notice?!?! SHRINKY DINKS!!!!!!

Of course I bought them, brought them home, but could not decide on what I wanted to draw on them. So I slept on it. This morning, my excitement couldn't wait any longer so I just jumped right in.
I think the most exciting part is watching them shrink in the oven! There will definitely be more to come! I think with my next 50% off coupon I'm going to buy the Shrinky Dinks you can put through your printer, so I can play with images on Photoshop.

It's amazing what you find when you're not looking..... well .. looking for the specific item! hehe

Cedar Bark dyeing

I love natural dyeing. The colors always seem to amaze me because you never know what you are going to get from leaves, roots, or in this case, bark.



On the right is the original Merino fleece that I used. I think that I would have got a better, darker color from the cedar bark if I would have scoured (cleaned) the fleece first. I have lots of cedar bark left so I will definitely try it again.

Great Find!

I love thrift store shopping! I think you can find some really cool things for fairly inexpensive. Here is an example:
On the left is 100% Italian Mohair, and on the right is 100% Cotton. I absolutely love the mohair! It's a bit more pink in real life, and the label is so adorable!!!

Inspiration: Courtney Brims

WOW! That's all I can say when I see her artwork! I especially love her portraits! There is so many little details that make the whole picture absolutely amazing. Here are a few to show you what I mean:

Please check out Courtney Brims' website!

Indigo Day - part 2

This is a continuation from this post where I blogged about my Indigo Day with a few lovely ladies from my Textile Art program. In the post I mentioned that I also dyed some fleece. Well, here it is:

Left: Merino, Middle: Local sheep from Ontario, Right: Merino dyed in a Potassium vat

I absolutely LOVE the merino! I've have very little experience spinning with merino, and now that I've worked with it more (mostly dyeing), I need to buy another pound of it! lol I'm hoping to work up the courage to spin these lovely braids, but it's hard when they are so soft and squishy the way they are. Sometimes I spin too tight and it takes away some of the squishy feeling.

I wish the Merino on the right would have turned out darker. The dye vat it's self is a very very dark brown, and when I dipped the fleece in, it soaked it up right away, but when I pulled the fleece out, it was how you see it now. I'm not sure if I should have soaked it in a mordant before I died it, but we have never had to do that with fabric before. I don't see why fleece would be treated differently. We have more vats at school, so maybe I will have to try again.

Coming Soon: Cedar Bark dyeing

Acid Dyes! Finally!

All of my at home dyeing has been with either Kool-Aid or food coloring. It's not that I haven't had the knowledge or skills to use professional acid dyes, but I just never got around to mixing the stock solutions, until last Tuesday. I bought the acid dyes awhile ago, (I didn't realize it was in January until I connected the link to the post! wow! hehe) and because you have to take quite a few safety precautions, ie. particulate mask, big rubber gloves, etc I've stuck with the easier methods like Kool-aid (plus the Kool-aid smells good *wink*)

Anyways, I played around a bit with the acid dyes, and I forgot that the blue takes awhile to "stick" to the fleece, so a lot of my reds were supposed to be purples. I know next time I will probably over dye instead of just mixing the red and blue together to get purple. Or maybe buy a purple dye to save time. Here are a few pictures from my wonderful and colorful day.

Local Sheep fleece from Ontario, Canada

Local Sheep Fleece from Ontario, Canada

Merino

Polworth

Every time I try to be adventurous when I dye, and use different colors together that are not in the same color family, ie. complimentary I always end up with "Swamp Fleece":

Polworth

Wenslydale

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the "Swamp Fleece", but It would be nice to have some pretty colors like you see in the stores or on Etsy. I think I'm going to try drum carding the "Swamp Fleece" and see if it makes it any better. hehe