Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Complex Silk

Sometimes you just have to START!
I started by dying these with Eucalyptus and rust. I got the silk too wet with vinegar and water, wrapped it around Eucalyptus leaves and flowers and around rusty bits & tied it up tight. I cooked it. Got just the palest bit of a print. SO, I re-wrapped and plunged it in my rust bath (garden rust, vinegar and water) and placed it in a baggie overnight. Much rust and some Eucalyptus prints. Not much. It just looked mysteriously dirty. I learned that the Eucalyptus buds will leave intense prints and that the rust makes the prints turn black.
The scarves did look dirty, with tiny bits ofloveliness. SO I got out my new SilkDyes, instant, non-toxic dyes. Fun! Saved one of the scarves from the compost heap/scrap bin.
They both actually look good when worn. But this one, I will stitch on to try to improve the look.