Re-acquainting myself with the Royal Botanical Gardens and the Collingwood Children's Farm, and more shibori, dyeing and embroidery.

Well, life certainly isn't boring for me!  I seem to race for activity to activity so fast that I am hardly able to settle down at home and concentrate on my own work.  But, it is all learning and inspiration.

 

I went to a meeting at the Plant Craft Cottage and watched an experiment in dyeing using leaves from endangered eucalyptus in the Royal Botanic Gardens ( they are not allowed to bring foreign plant matter because of the danger of myrtle dust).

 

The leaves of verrucata, kitsoniana, macarthurri and one other ( I didn't catch the name) were put in 4  dye baths containing iron ( gives a darker colour), alum (gives a yellow colour), copper (gives a green colour) and just water to boil for 3/4 hour at 90 degrees, then sit for 3/4 hour.  Then, wool hanks were soaked for another 3/4 hour.

 

We didn't see the results, but no doubt I will find out at a later meeting.

In the meantime, someone else had conducted an experiment using gardenia crassicaulis, which apparently used to be used as a food colouring, and which gave off a blue colour on wool.  She also experimented with safflower and got these lovely colours on cotton and wool.

The cottage sells the work of the members and I helped package items up for the shop.  There were some lovely scarves

and handkerchiefs, but the shop also sells basketry, paper, pressed flowers and wool products. I ended up buying myself some baskets, ostensibly for gifts, but they ended up in my house!

I was also able to visit the Collingwood Children's Farm which is great fun for young and old and a great place to go if you want to sketch animals or landscapes.

 

Another trip was to Bridgeport in South Australia, another place that is brilliant for landscape artists and a source of great pieces of old rusted metal and marine wood, which reminded me that I haven't played with rust in my work lately.

 

 

At home, I have been deciding what to do with my shibori indigo samplers from my previous dyeing workshop.  The pale ones are from the fruit baths and the dark ones for the caustic soda.  I think they would look good mixed together.

 

 

In addition, I have been doing some shibori on cotton and silk in preparation for an indigo dyeing day at the Plant Craft Cottage.

 

 

And lastly, I have been plodding on with my Moreton Bay tree roots!  Talk about slow! Still, I am getting there.

 

 

 

Looking back at all of this, no wonder I feel exhausted!