looking for true red

but I still haven't found what I'm looking for.... A very promissing colour in the dyepot with cochenille. Using cream of tartar will brighten up the shades I was told. But once the silksamples were rinsed it all changed to more brownish and purple. Bummer! Silk is very sensitive.....

boring grey?

The first three months of a year are for my own pleasure - no workshops, no shows. I love those months when there is no pressure, spending my time in playing and testing.  In the last few days I have been making all kind of greys. I'm looking for a lifely one, with a kind marbled effect. I have used different natural dyes as walnut, eucalyptus, indigo and sumacleaves. To get a grey you need iron and a tannine and I have used this combination in different ways. It's a wonderful palet of all kind of shades in browngrey, bluegrey and silvergrey. And this time I have wrote down all the data to be able to re-produce the colours.

a bit of spring with natural pink

Snow was gone in almost one day 

with the rainy days and temperatures around 10 Celcius. 

Now I'am longing for colours! 

This pink I achieved with cochenille. 

The shawls moved to Art Wear Jordaan in Amsterdam 

to bring a little bit of spring 

De sneeuw was met de warme regen binnen een dag verdwenen om plaats te

maken voor grauwe luchten en storm.

Ik snak naar kleur om alles vrolijker te maken. Het roze hiervan komt van de

cochenille. Een paar sjaals zijn naar Art Wear Jordaan verhuisd om daar 

alvast het lentegevoel te brengen ....

Mix and Match with Michel Garcia

Just back home from an intensive three days course with dyemaster Michel Garcia from France, which was organised by Karina van der Vught from Zijdelings in Tilburg. For a long time I have tried to find information on him, but he was almost invisible on the web. Last year after the ISEND in La Rochelle there were going rumours around he was going to the Netherlands. So I grab my chance to meet the man who knows all about a great system in working with natural mordants and dyepots and easy 1-2-3 indigo dyebaths! My head is stuffed with loads of information, new possibilities and ideas of natural dyeings and printings!  

Ik ben nog helemaal vol van een intensieve 3-daagse cursus met verfmeester Michel Garcia uit Frankrijk, die was georganiseerd door Karina van der Vught van Zijdelings uit Tilburg. Al heel lang probeerde ik meer over hem te weten te komen, maar hij was bijna onzichtbaar op het internet. Voor hem geen facebook! Nadat er geruchten rondgingen dat hij zou komen, greep ik mijn kans. Ik wilde dolgraag de man ontmoeten die op een vakkundige wijze alles weet van eenvoudige natuurlijke methodes over natuurlijke beitsen en verfen, die de 1-2-3-indiGO vat met natuurlijke middelen makkelijk aan de praat krijgt en weet te houden met een makkelijk te onthouden 'EZELS'-bruggetje. Met al deze informatie zie ik weer veel nieuwe mogelijkheden en ideeen in natuurlijk verven en printings.  

bloody red

There were loads of them - branches of the ash tree, covered with lichen Xanthoria_parietina. The presence of this yellow lichen is because there is a lot of ammonia in the air. It could be caused by the cows in our neighbours greenfields. I have collected them all and made a natural arrangement on the lid of my trashcan. Some of them I have used for my bundling. 

Red2white has extracted colour from it and made a samples it in a salmoncolour. When I unbundled my roll I was surprised to see the yellow transformed into a bloody red with the help of ashwater. You can even see the marks on my piece of cotton.  

Mijn terras lag bezaaid met gevallen takken van de Es. Veel ervan zijn bedekt met een laagje geel groot dooiermos. Door de aanwezigheid van ammonia in de lucht zouden deze mosjes ineens veel beter groeien. Misschien komt het door de koeien die regelmatig aan de overkant in de wei lopen? Ik heb alles opgeraapt en op de deksel van mijn afvalemmer er een mooi arrangement mee gemaakt. Een paar heb ik gebruikt voor mijn bundeltjes.

Red to white heeft er net als vroeger een kleur van getrokken en er zalmrose mee geverfd. Toen ik mijn bundeltjes openmaakte was ik prettig verrast bij het zien van de bloedrode kleur op het stokje en op mijn katoenen lap. De aanwezigheid van het aswater dat als een base werkt heeft de gele kleur veranderd in rood. Het is echt toveren!  

my feltwork at joetjoep

A little bit of trumpetnoise for myself. I have made a small video of the 2-minutes of my first fashionfame with my NOWA Natural Organic Wearable Art '11 collection from my label Plantdrukkunst ©. This was possible because of the organisation of a fashionshow with and by members of the Dutch Feltassociation.

Twee minuten in de spotlights met mijn eerste collectie NOWA Natural Organic Wearable Art '11 van het label Plantdrukkunst © in de fashionshow Kruithuis, Den Bosch. Mogelijk gemaakt door het committee van het 20-jarig bestaan van de Viltkontaktgroep

puff-boxes / poederdozen

Before making the rugs from the previous post I had made some samples. Usually they end up in some storebox, but these I wanted to use as a flap. I choose a simple round bag as a body. It is nothing fancy, nothing special, no great or orignal design, just easy to do. I have experimented with woolen etamine and chiffonsilk as a nunofelt for the inside. Also I wanted them to dye natural and see what colour was left from some of my old dyebaths as brasilwood, privet-berries and eucalyptus. With the exhausted colours I ended up with lovely soft puff-tones. And laying next to eachother on the edge of my couch  they came alife. Suddenly I thought of puff-boxes, soft and sweet. My youngest daughter adores them, so probably they will end up as little cushions on her sofa.....

Voordat ik aan het grotere werk begon van de zachte kleden, wilde ik eerst weten hoe deze vachtjes zouden vilten en welke methode voor mij zou werken. Normaal gesproken eindigen deze proeflapjes ergens in een doos, maar nu wilde ik er toch wat mee doen. Het werd een flap op een eenvoudig rond tasje, geen hoogstandje maar een perfecte achtergrond van mijn harige proefjes. Sommige hebben een wollen etamine als nunovilt voor de binnenkant, wat ze gelijk een stuk steviger maakt. Ook wilde ik weten hoeveel kleurstof er nog in een aantal van mijn oude natuurlijke verfbaden zou zijn. Door mijn roodhout, ligusterbesjes en eucalyptus helemaal uit te verven kreeg ik mooie zachte poedertinten. De hele sterke rood-oranje is van het 1e bad eucalyptus. Ze zijn verre van perfect, maar toen ze zo naast elkaar lagen kreeg ik het gevoel van poederdozen, zacht, zoet en weelderig. Ik geloof dat mijn jongste dochter ze wel ziet zitten als kussentjes op haar bed.....

just around the corner

I have promissed myself to be at least 15 minutes outside. And the ones who knows me, knows also that this is a big challenge for me. Walking isn't that easy for me, special when the days are getting colder and nastier. So to keep myself warm, I collect fallen leaves. And just look what's close to me, just around the corner. Although it is almost wintertime, there is still much to find due to the soft authumn days we have here in the Netherlands. My rosebush gave beautifull small reddark leaves, I found some walnutleaves, wild geraniumleaves, cotinus and bark from the dead eucalyptustree. With this I made a sample on silk noil and some mono-printed strips for my friends birthday. All were dipped in a homemade ash-solution. I was surpised with the strong outcome.

ro(c)k & roll in logwoodblue

Currently I'am working at a fashioncollection with eco-dyed and printed nunofelts . These garments will be shown at the fashionshow at March 4th, 2012 organised by the Dutch Feltcontactgroup. This skirt is just a simple wrapskirt, but I like the outcome of the partly overdied nunofelt. I bundled the half of the skirt with some extra leaves in a roll and dyed it in a logwoodbath. Then waited for some days to open it. It was such a surprise to see this outcome, a wonderfull combination of all kind of colours and design. And as a bonus it is wearable at two sides! Unfortunately it has shrunk a bit more so it needed some stretching, but it still fits me. Hope I can survive the coming months without getting to much weight...

eco-tiles

Our Dutch Feltgroup will celebrate their 20th anniversary next year. Every member is challenged to make a felted tile with a limited size of 30x30cm. They can be flat or 3D and all will be assembled to one big wall. We have been experimenting in at our annual meeting this spring with some technics and idea's, but there was something else on my mind.



some try-outs in Turkish Ottomanstyle and cut-outtechnique (both not finished yet)

I wanted to make something with natural dyes and printing. Each tile with one monoprint on a clear background. But nothing so unpredictable as mother nature. My dye acted as a thunderstorm. It was so dark on the edges and so cloudy in the centre, despite the linenresists I had use to protect the centre. I cleared area's with lemonjuice, which lighten up the whole thing. It was a surpise to see prints on the linenresists. They are like little paintings and so I stitched them at the other side. I still cannot decide a front and a back. It will be a doublefaced tile. Unfortunately I wouldn't split my serie of four and decided to keep them myself.




monoprints on thick nunofelt with mapple-leave and eucalyptus (not finished yet)

What to do next, the deadline was in a few days. Thinking of a tile I came up with words as clean, geometric and simple so I ended up with a natural one. Finaly I made two with some ecodyed nunotextures in the theme 'connection'.




Connection - the completed tiles I send in for the expo-wall next year at the 20th anniversary in 2012 of the VKG, the Dutch feltcontactgroup

santé

I have tried to dye with the flowertails of the Red Amaranthus. When simmering it very softly it will gives a briljant red. I have read somewhere that this red is good for colouring food. Unfortunately it will not give you the same colour on a piece of fabric. I ended up with a kind of brown on the outside, but the inside gave me a lot of interesting patterns!